Xbox |OT|

[EpicRandy]

Ryuu96 said:

chakkra said:

If that was the case then all of the other regulators of the world would have just dropped the case on the spot, because now they would all just be wasting their time.
And how would that even work? How would an institution from a single country be able to enforce their will, if all the other institutions from around the globe get to a different resolution?

Those regulators still come to their own conclusions.

It's perfectly legal for CMA to demand concessions be applied worldwide, very unlikely CAT will care about that, I don't believe it breaks procedure, laws and wouldn't fit in with the bar of irrationality. CMA already made their positions clear weeks-months ago that they want the concessions to apply worldwide. I'd guess they will argue that local concessions aren't strong enough to protect the UK market (which is filled with global companies) so the concessions have to be applied worldwide.

They've also framed themselves recently as a global regulator: UK’s Competition Watchdog Aims for Leading Global Role

Microsoft needs CMA's permission to operate in UK and there's no way around them, so CMA can demand Global Concessions, even if other Regulators approve, those Regulators can't exactly force CMA not to do it and can't punish them for doing it, they may be annoyed but I doubt it. It's ballsy to be the only regulator against something but it ain't like it hasn't happened in the past. Recent example would be UK forcing Meta to sell Giphy.

No doubt, it's frustrating but there's really nothing illegal about them demanding it.

That's what I understand also, even if MS where to leave the cloud market in the UK it would still impact cloud gaming actor in the UK by restricting their access to dealing with ABK as an independant entity.

However if MS wanted they could completly exit the cloud gaming industry world wide. If they were to do so, they would essentialy already have the greenlight from the CMA to proceed with the merger without the need to appeal the decision. However it is more logical for MS, if they intend on using this nuclear option, to use it only after trying every others avenues they have by appeling first, because even if they loss in appeal they could still do so.

I kind of suspect this is the reason why we don't here anything from Sony yet. They are evaluating the possibility that MS would just do so. If they find it likely they probably appeal the CMA decision themselves in a bid to also reinstate the Console SLC along with the cloud one which would be more definitive in blocking the deal.