The Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East filed a lawsuit seeking to block Paramount Skydance‘s proposed $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging it violates federal antitrust law and would cause specific harm to writers.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It comes a day after 12 Democratic state attorneys general also filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the merger, alleging Paramount-WBD would have anticompetitive power in theatrical and basic cable TV markets.
“With fewer competitors, the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. entity would have both the incentive and the ability to lower costs by suppressing writers’ wages and reducing output. Writers will be paid less and have fewer employment opportunities,” the WGA complaint states. The WGA complaint is available at this link.
Reps for Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The WGA’s lawsuit focuses on the alleged anticompetitive effects of the Paramount-WBD merger in three markets for writing services: anticipated top grossing films, episodic television and streaming series, and overall deals.
