Japan has approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King.
Japan’s trade regulator is called the Japan Fair Trade Commission, or the JFTC for short. The JFTC published their press release and a PDF of their findings on their official site, dated March 28, 2023.
Assuming most of our readers understand English but may not know Japanese, we turn to a fan translation of the press release from Precursor on Twitter. Here is what their press release says, paraphrased for brevity:
“The Japan Fair Trade Commission has established Microsoft Corporation and Activision Blizzard Inc, we received submissions from the Parties Group of Plans for Share Acquisition and Merger in accordance with the provisions of the Anti-Monopoly Act, and as a result of examination, Since it was recognized that it would not substantially restrain competition in a certain field of trade, the company groups was notified to the effect that a cease and desist order would not be issued, and the examination was completed.”
Please note that Precursor’s translation sought to retain Japanese syntax, which works differently from English syntax and can be confusing.
But to put it more plainly, the JFTC studied the Microsoft-Activision deal, in particular if it violated any terms in Japan’s own Anti-Monopoly Act. They found that the deal doesn’t break any provisions in this law, so they decided to clear the deal.
That clearance comes with no extra remedies, exceptions, or rules. On this point, Japan joins Saudi Arabia, Brazil. Serbia, and Chile in clearing the deal completely.
IP analyst Florian Mueller shared his commentary on this matter on Twitter as well:
“Japan Fair Trade Commission clears #Microsoft-#ActivisionBlizzard: no risk of substantial lessening of competition in any relevant market.
This means it’s now 8-0 against #Sony’s CoD #PlayStation foreclosure theory of harm.
The JFTC deserves respect for staying in the mainstream of global #antitrust enforcement, which is more than the U.S. FTC can say at the moment, regrettably.
Last month I commented very favorably on the JFTC’s work to rein in digital #gatekeepers.”
While Microsoft and Activision are no doubt celebrating this move, it’s a bit strange to see it happen. We also reported today on US Congress calling for an investigation, if Sony had been violating their trade agreement in Japan. This also falls under the jurisdiction of the JFTC.
So the JFTC may have made the right choice for Microsoft and Activision. But have they also been overly protecting Sony in Japan, to the detriment of Microsoft?
That matter may be up to the US government officials to decide, but everything will certainly be awkward if they do find something anomalous and report it back to Congress.
