Paramount has agreed to a request from 12 states to link their federal antitrust case to a pre-existing suit brought by Paramount+ subscribers.
The move means that the states’ challenge to the $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery will likely end up before Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, a Biden appointee who is already handling the earlier lawsuit.
Martinez-Olguin, whose courtroom is in Oakland, worked for the National Immigration Law Center and the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project before being nominated to the bench in 2023.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta led the state coalition in filing the suit on Monday in the Northern District of California. The states are also asking for a temporary restraining order and an injunction that would prevent the merger from closing. No hearing has yet been scheduled on that motion.
On Monday, Bonta’s office filed a motion to relate the case to a lawsuit filed in April by Paramount+ subscribers who alleged that the merger would harm competition and drive up prices. The state argued that it would be more efficient to have one judge consider both suits.
