Microsoft granted access to Sony documents: The FTC's response in detail

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At a glance

The Federal Trade Commission has addressed Sony's objections to Microsoft's subpoena for internal documents, and has rejected the majority of them.

In a ruling signed by chief administrative law judge D. Michael Chappell, the FTC granted two of Sony's requests but denied the other six.

Microsoft issued the subpoena to Sony requesting access to various documents and information it can use to assist with its defence against the FTC later this year. The US regulator issued a legal complaint against the Xbox firm's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard back in December.

The subpoena was served on January 17, with Sony issuing its objections on January 23. It later emerged Sony described some of Microsoft's requests as "obvious harassment."

The FTC noted that Sony and Microsoft met to discuss these objections on five separate occasions.

Microsoft argued that certain information around Sony's PlayStation business will help address concerns over the impact its ownership of Activision Blizzard might have on competition in the video games space.

We get more insight from the FTC's response to Sony, as detailed below.

Microsoft asked Sony for a copy of every content licensing agreement between PlayStation and any third-party publisher from January 1, 2012 onwards.

Sony claimed this was of no value to the case. It added that Sony's systems do not allow it to search contracts by company type, only by name, so this would mean searching over 150,000 contracts with around 60,000 companies.

However, Microsoft insisted this search would help address allegations around exclusivity arrangements with game publishers, some of which involve