Critics claim $45B Comcast merger violates antitrust

A group of consumer advocates warned the Justice Department Thursday that Comcast’s planned $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable would violate antitrust law.

Consumers Union — the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports — sent a 51-page filing to the department arguing that the deal “would substantially lessen competition, impede innovation … and reduce the quality and diversity of information sources and services to the public, all to the detriment of consumers.” 

{mosads}If approved, Comcast would have “unprecedented control” over the market and “greater power to blunt the emerging hope of competition” from online companies like Netflix, it claimed.

For Consumers Union, all that would amount to a violation of federal antitrust law.

The proposed deal to combine the nation’s two largest cable companies has led to fears in a number of opponents that the company would become too big and end up abusing customers.

Many critics, including Consumers Union, have raised their opposition to the Federal Communications Commission, which is charged with overseeing whether or not the merger is in the public interest. Fewer have gone to the Justice Department, whose job it is to decide whether the deal would violate antitrust law.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable have disputed that the deal would harm the public interest or fun afoul of antitrust laws.

The companies say they do not operate in any of the same markets, so no subscriber would have any fewer options as a direct result of the merger. They are also agreeing to spin off 2.5 million customers and have offered to stick to a variety of conditions.