The FTC is now trying to delay the Activision deal in a new way as Microsoft pushes to close it

gamesradar.com:

Not even a full day after appealing its loss in the Microsoft Activision court case, the US Federal Trade Commission is pushing for a new, temporary injunction which would stop the deal from closing until its appeal receives a ruling.

A new motion for injunction pending appeal was filed earlier today, July 13, with the FTC calling on the court to stop Microsoft from closing the Activision deal until it can finish its review of the merger, which is separate from this case and still ongoing. "In the alternative," the FTC adds, it's seeking an injunction until its pending appeal is evaluated by the court. 

The news comes on the heels of Activision preparing to withdraw from the US stock exchange's top 100 index, signaling that it's confident the Microsoft deal will close soon – theoretically as soon as a few days, with the revised restraining order on Microsoft now set to expire on July 14. 

The FTC's argument this time is that the wrong legal standard was applied to its initial push for a preliminary injunction. The crux is that it believes "the Court applied the standard applicable to trials on the antitrust merits, relying on government cases seeking permanent injunctions." 

The important difference here is about the burden on the plaintiff and the responsibility of the court. In the case of a permanent injunction, the FTC writes, "federal district courts bear the responsibility for determining the antitrust merits in the first instance; there is no separate administrative proceeding to follow." However, its preliminary injunction needed only to "raise 'serious, substantial' questions as to the merits' of the acquisition." 

"That is decidedly not the standard applicable to this preliminary proceeding, and the Court erred