9 Amicus Briefs Filed Siding With Microsoft vs FTC Come From the Chamber of Commerce, Unions, and More

gameranx.com:

The latest page of the Microsoft vs FTC saga is with us now, and it’s probably not what you expect.

This is the Judge Corley case, filed in federal court, and superseding the internal hearing that FTC planned to hold with Judge Michael Chappel, but didn’t come to pass. Judge Corley ruled in favor of Microsoft, but this is the process of the appeal being held in the 9^th court.

So, at this stage of the appeal, outside parties can file their amicus briefs about the case. Microsoft has seen nine separate entities file their amicus briefs, all of which do so in support of Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision Blizzard King.

As reported by Tom Warren, these special interest groups are the:

• Chamber of Commerce

• CWA union and AFL-CIO

• a group of venture capitalists

• former regulator enforcers

• indie devs – Curve, iam8bit, Finji, Strange Scaffold, Studio Wildcard

• Business Roundtable

• former State AGs

• TechFreedom

• a collection of economists

While the CWA and AFL-CIO represent America’s unions, the Chamber of Commerce is a lobby for the biggest businesses in the country. We had reported on the AFL-CIO’s support for Microsoft’s deal, dating as far back as last year. When you add to that TechFreedom, a think tank that focuses on tech policy, regulators, attorney generals, etc, it’s clear that different political  groups from across the aisle have  come together to show their support for it.

The amicus brief from the Communications Workers of America in particular was a strong show of support. The CWA also made sure to let the 9^th district appeals court know that Sony does not support their unions the way that Microsoft is. In their words:

“Microsoft stands alone among major U.S. video game and technology companies. At