Microsoft's appeal against UK Activision Blizzard block pencilled in for late July

Microsoft's appeal against the UK Competition and Merger Authority's decision to reject its Activision Blizzard deal has been given a preliminary 24th July start date.

The CMA made the shock decision to block Microsoft proposed $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard in April, highlighting concerns relating to the burgeoning cloud gaming sector and arguing the deal would risk "stifling competition in this growing market".

And now, following the recent publication of Microsoft's summary of application to appeal the CMA's decision - in which it accused the UK regulator of making "fundamental errors in its assessment" - the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal has held a case management conference to iron out preliminary details of the hearing between Microsoft and the CMA.

Ultimately, despite Microsoft pushing for a June hearing and the CMA's legal representation arguing for a later date, the Honourable Mr Justice Marcus Smith, presiding for the CAT, moved to provisionally schedule the hearing for the ten working days beginning 24th July.

While the CAT acknowledged it was unlikely the appeal would require all ten days, it suggested six days - an increase on the four requested by Microsoft - might be a more appropriate timeframe for the hearing, encouraging both parties to consider longer rather than shorter oral submissions given the complexities of the case.

Before then, the CAT has scheduled a second case management conference for 12th June to discuss questions around factual and expert evidence, and if conversations during this meeting indicate the provisional hearing dates need to be adjourned, that remains a possibility.

If Microsoft's appeal is successful, it will still need to go back though the CMA for review.