New York v. Deutsche Telekom

The New York v. Deutsche Telekom was the court case of the merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint Corporation, filed initially by the State Attorneys General from New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and was led by New York Attorneys General Letitia James with Federal Southern District of New York Judge Victor Marrero proceeding.^[1][2]

Background[]

The trial was initially filled due to the Proposed Merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint corporation, after the merger was approved by the US Department of Justice. (see T-Mobile US#Proposed merger with Sprint for more details). The states filed the merger due to concerns over the merger violating antitrust laws, being anti-competitive, would lessen the amount of jobs available, and would create higher pricing for consumers. NY AG stated, in connection on why the lawsuit was filed that "When it comes to corporate power, bigger isn’t always better. The T-Mobile and Sprint merger would not only cause irreparable harm to mobile subscribers nationwide by cutting access to affordable, reliable wireless service for millions of Americans, but would particularly affect lower-income and minority communities here in New York and in urban areas across the country. That’s why we are going to court to stop this merger and protect our consumers, because this is exactly the sort of consumer-harming, job-killing megamerger our antitrust laws were designed to prevent.” ^[1][2] The trial was initially set to begin on October 7, 2019.

The trial did have many opponents initially, including the DOJ and the FCC. ^[3][4] FCC Chairman Ajit Pai called the lawsuit "misguided" and stated “And make no mistake about it, government officials trying to block this transaction are working to stop many upstate New Yorkers and other rural Americans from getting access to fast mobile broadband and all of the benefits that come with it.”^[4]

After the DOJ delayed giving the documents of their settlement with T-Mobile and Sprint, the State AGs requested a delay of the start date of the trial.^[5] After consideration and hearing pre-trial arguments, the judge delayed the start of the trial to December 9, 2019. ^[6] NY AG Letitia James did state, once she reviewed the settlement documents between the DOJ and Sprint and T-Mobile that “Our case against T-Mobile is an antitrust violation, obviously we’re concerned with anti-competitive behavior,” James explains. “So providing public benefits are good, but it does not address the antitrust violations.”

Between the time of the announcement of the trial and the beginning of the trial, 8 additional states entered the trial along the other State AGs. These states included Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Prior to the trial beginning, the defendants did enter settlement talks with all the state AGs involved in the case.^[12] Due to this, they did successfully settle with some of the state AGs prior to the trial beginning. These states were Mississippi, Colorado, Texas, and Nevada.^{[13][14][15][16][17]} They also attempted to settle with each of the other State AGs, but these talks eventually fell through before the trial began. The final number of State AGs in the trial was 14.

References[]

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