United States v. AT&T, 916 F.3d 1029 (2019), was a ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,[1] which prevented the U.S. government from blocking a merger between AT&T and Time Warner, thus creating the WarnerMedia conglomerate. The court found that regulators were unable to prove harm to consumers per the requirements of United States antitrust law.[2]
Background
AT&T first announced plans to acquire Time Warner in October 2016. The acquisition would give AT&T significant holdings in the media content industry for the first time, and would allow the company to compete more fully with its primary telecommunications rival, Comcast, which had recently acquired