FTC to contest Microsoft-Activision merger in admin trial, evidentiary hearing date set

The Federal Trade Commission has set a date for a key part in its administrative case against the Microsoft-Activision merger.

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Despite losing a case for a preliminary injunction in 2023, and despite Microsoft completing its $68.7 billion acquisition by integrating Activision Blizzard King into the company, the FTC will still pursue its challenge of the Microsoft-Activision merger in its internal courts. At the time of writing, the case is still pending.

Today the FTC has filed a motion that delayed the case's evidentiary hearing date from May 28 to July 2025. This will allow all groups (including the FTC, Microsoft, and even Nintendo of America) more time to compile information required for the evidentiary hearing. For reference, since it was held in a district court, the evidentiary hearing for the previous FTC v MSFT temporary injunction case was public, and both gamers and the press learned a multitude of information from these proceedings. Parts of these administrative proceedings will be made public, unless an Administrative Law Judge orders an "in camera" treatment to the evidence (Nintendo, for example, has requested in camera for its submissions).

Administrative Law Judge Michael D. Chappel, who is overseeing the case and serves as Chief ALJ for the FTC, so ordered:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Joint Motion to Change Hearing Date and Vacate all Interim Pretrial Deadlines, filed on May 11, 2025, is GRANTED, and that the evidentiary hearing in this proceeding shall commence at 10:00 a.m. on July 21, 2025; and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that all interim pretrial deadlines under the Third Revised Scheduling Order are vacated until further order of the presiding Administrative Law Judge.

The full FTC v Microsoft administrative case docket can be found here.