Judge Dismisses Consumer Lawsuit Challenging Paramount-WBD Merger

A federal judge tossed out an antitrust challenge to the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger that was brought by a group of consumers.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín wrote that the plaintiffs in the case had failed to establish standing, but she will allow them to file a revised complaint.

“Plaintiffs’ standing theory amounts to little more than the assertion that they are consumers who watch television and go to the movies, and therefore a merger between entertainment companies would injure them,” the judge wrote.

She also wrote that the plaintiffs alleged “only one concrete and particularized injury – a single, historical price
increase on Paramount+.” But the injury was “not suffered in the same way by all five of the plaintiffs,” the judge wrote.

Martínez-Olguín also is presiding over the separate antitrust cases challenging the merger brought by state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America. On Tuesday, she set a trial date for March.

The consumer lawsuit was filed in April, before the state AG lawsuit. The plaintiffs included five pay-TV and streaming services subscribers who claimed, among other things, that the acquisition would increase prices and diminish the diversity of viewpoints. The lawsuit also seeks the divestiture of Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global last year.

Paramount’s legal team argued that the plaintiffs — Pamela Faust, Len Marazzo, Lisa McCarthy, Deborah Rubinsohn and Gary Talewsky — did not have standing, and that they failed to state a plausible claim of competitive harm from the merger.

The judge held a hearing in the case earlier this month, but denied the plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction.