Microsoft sets out grounds for Activision appeal against U.K. regulator

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Key Points

Microsoft is challenging Britain's decision to block its $69 billion takeover of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard on the grounds of "fundamental errors" in the assessment of Microsoft's cloud gaming services...

Britain's anti-trust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), vetoed the deal in April, saying it could hurt competition in the nascent cloud gaming market, sparking a furious row...

Microsoft confirmed on Wednesday it had filed an appeal against the ruling to Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), and a summary of its arguments was published on Friday...

The CMA "made fundamental errors in its calculation and assessment of market share data for cloud gaming services by failing to take account of constraints from native gaming (whereby gamers access games installed on their devices through a digital download or physical disc)", Microsoft will say at the Competition Appeal Tribunal..

Rima Alaily, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, said the CMA's decision was "flawed for multiple reasons, including its overestimation of the role of cloud streaming in the gaming market and our position in it, as well as its unwillingness to consider solutions that received overwhelming industry and public support"...

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