Fearing negative effects on the level of competition in this market, the European Commission made the decision to carefully examine the proposed acquisition of the British computer games company Activision by the American software company Microsoft.
The Commission said, in a statement: “The Commission is concerned that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Bilzard prevents the rival distributors of games and personal computer games that provide such services from accessing computer games of Activision Bilzard. ”
Concerns raised by UNHCR centre on a potential decline in market competition, which could result in expensive prices and lower-than-expected game quality.
The Commission also expressed worry that Microsoft might use the agreement to make its products more appealing than those of rival companies.
The Commission said in a statement that the first examination of the deal indicates that Microsoft may have the ability and economic incentive to engage in such practices in the face of the developers of the competing personal computer operating systems.
Last September, the Competition Protection and Anti -Monopathic Protection Agency decided to conduct a deeper review of the Microsoft Corporation of Activision Bilzard due to fears of its effects on the level of competition in the market.
The British Competition and Markets Protection Authority announced that it had chosen to conduct the longest review because Microsoft blew the chance to address the authority’s concerns about the deal’s effects on the competition by failing to submit any proposals.
The acquisition of Activision by Microsoft is being closely examined by the European Commission.
About Author
