Block the Merger makes last-minute bid to challenge Paramount-Warner deal in court
Five press freedom and film organisations made a last-minute push to be heard in the fight over Paramount's $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The coalition, operating as Block the Merger, filed an emergency request on Thursday morning in federal court in California, according to Variety. The filing asks for permission to submit an amicus brief, meaning a filing that lets outsiders offer legal arguments to a court.
The decision sits with Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín. She is weighing whether to approve the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
The five groups behind the motion are the Committee for the First Amendment, Free Press, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Future Film Coalition and International Documentary Association. Free Press co-chief executive Jessica J. González is serving as co-counsel on the motion.
In a coalition statement, the members said they want the judge to let interested parties formally oppose the consent decree, meaning a court-approved settlement, that Paramount entered with state attorneys general on Monday.
That settlement resolved an antitrust lawsuit, meaning a challenge brought on competition grounds, filed by 12 states. California led the action, with Arizona, Colorado and Connecticut among the states that joined, and the case had been set for trial in March 2027. The states had also sought a preliminary injunction, meaning a court order to pause the merger while the case proceeded, according to Reuters.
Under the deal struck on Monday, Paramount committed to release at least 30 films a year. It also agreed to set up an independent editorial board to oversee CNN and CBS News operations. And it agreed to retain the Paramount Studios or Warner Bros. lots in California for at least five years.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the settlement terms "very strong." The Writers Guild of America has separately settled its own lawsuit aiming to block the merger.
What happens next could come quickly. Judge Martínez-Olguín set an 11 a.m. hearing on Thursday to address outstanding questions over the merger. Block the Merger said the judge may also rule on its motion during that hearing.
