In June, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled the merger would not lead to higher cable bills for consumers, as the Justice Department argued. In their appeal, antitrust officials argue this conclusion was incorrect.
“The district court erroneously concluded that the merger will not give Time Warner any increased bargaining leverage,” officials wrote in their appeal, according to Bloomberg. “The reasons the district court gave for finding zero increase in leverage are implausible and internally inconsistent.”
AT&T officials argue the Justice Department’s appeal shouldn’t change the original ruling.
“Appeals aren’t ‘do-overs,'” AT&T General Counsel David McAtee said in a statement. “After a long trial, Judge Leon weighed the evidence and rendered a comprehensive 172-page decision that systematically exposed each of the many holes in the government’s case. There is nothing in [the Justice Department’s] brief today that should disturb that decision.”
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