Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard buy involves a “vertical merger” of the sort that the U.S. antitrust agencies “have rarely sought to enjoin” and have lost “every recent case in which they tried.” So said the Microsoft-Activision 9th Circuit answering brief Wednesday (docket 23-15992) in the FTC’s appeal of U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley’s denial of its preliminary injunction to block the transaction from going through (see 2307110061).

Indiana Attorney General Theodore Rokita (R) went to U.S. District Court for Indiana in Indianapolis Tuesday seeking a permanent injunction to enjoin MV Realty, five of its subsidiaries and three of its officers “from further pursuit of an aggressive and illegal robocalling and telemarketing operation” targeting Indiana homeowners, said his complaint (docket 1:23-cv-01578).

Advocates of the October 2020 antitrust case by DOJ and 11 states against Google expanded in a Wednesday news briefing on their Friday third-party motion (docket 1:20-cv-03010) for U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta for the District of Columbia to allow a publicly available audio feed of the unsealed portions of the trial. The case, which alleges Google's "exclusionary agreements" cover about 60% of all general internet search queries, with half the remaining queries funneled through Google owned-and-operated properties, is set for trial Tuesday.

Twitter’s termination of software engineer Ethan Sutin was part of a “recent effort to cut costs by any means necessary,” alleges Sutin’s Friday breach of contract complaint against X, formerly Twitter, (docket 23-608806) in California Superior Court in San Francisco.

Dish Network got support from public interest groups and the Phoenix Center on its request for an extension, until June 30, to exercise an option to buy 800 MHz licenses from T-Mobile. T-Mobile and parent Deutsche Telekom oppose the extension. Last week, Dish defended its request in a filing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (see 2309010050).

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should reverse the district court’s declaratory judgment absolving Charter Communications of any further monetary obligations under a 1964 revenue-sharing cable-permit agreement signed by the predecessor companies of Charter and Prewitt Management, said Prewitt’s opening appellant brief Tuesday (docket 23-50419).

Cricket Wireless violated Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA) before and after its 2014 acquisition by AT&T by not disclosing the CDMA wireless network’s imminent shutdown, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled Tuesday (case 416, September 2022 term). The court disagreed with a lower court reversing the Maryland attorney general's consumer protection division (CPD) finding of a pre-merger violation, while rejecting AT&T’s appeal of a post-merger violation.

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Communications Litigation Today is tracking the below lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions. Cases marked with an * were terminated since the last update. Cases in bold are new since the last update.

A flurry of notices -- for oral argument, related cases and opposition responses -- were filed last week and Monday before the U.S. Panel on Multidistrict Litigation involving the May MOVEit data breach. Cases stem from a May data breach at Progress Software Corp. (PSC) whose MOVEit file transfer software contained a vulnerability that was exploited by Russian ransomware group Clop.