EU Required A Monitor Trustee To Approve The Microsoft Activision Deal
The EU required that a monitor trustee be assigned before they approved the Microsoft – Activision deal.
In section 896, page 206 of the EU’s decision document on the deal, they state:
“In particular, first, the Commission notes that the Notifying Party cannot close the Transaction before having appointed a Monitoring Trustee.”
As you can see, the European Commission was crystal clear that this was mandatory for the deal to be approved.
As for why they felt it was necessary, they state in section 895 that:
“The Commission considers that the monitoring and dispute resolution provisions set out in the commitments will ensure the effective implementation of and compliance with the Consumer License Commitment and the Streaming Provider License Commitment.”
These other commitments are also laid out in other parts of the decision, but there’s really nothing new here. These are the provisions that requires Microsoft to freely provide cloud gaming licenses for their games to eligible competitors, such as the ones that they already provided to Nvidia, Ubitus, and Boosteroid.
Notably, the EU did do their research on Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming business, and did not make it a requirement that Microsoft reach out to them to make the same deal. Amazon Luna is available under their jurisdiction on Germany, so they may have hypothetically mandated this. It does seem that the EU is content to let Amazon and other such companies pursue action on their own.
On section 898 on page 207, the EU explains this in some detail:
“As for the Streaming Provider License Commitment, the Final Commitments foresee a fast-track dispute resolution procedure in the event that an Eligible Streaming Service (including NVIDIA, Boosteroid and Ubitus), showing
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