The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit holds that the DoJ failed to show that the District Court erred in denying the government’s request for a permanent injunction is blocking a merger (AT&T / Time Warner)

On February 26, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to show that the district court clearly erred in denying the government’s request for a permanent injunction to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger. The appeals court cited the “real-world” evidence from AT&T and Time Warner’s expert – upon which the trial court relied heavily – as well as gaps in the government’s expert model. The DOJ has reportedly said it has no plans to appeal the decision. This case has attracted significant attention in part because it was the first litigated vertical merger challenge in decades. Background In the fall of 2016, AT&T announced that it proposed to acquire Time Warner. Time Warner produces video