AT&T says it should be allowed to buy Time Warner because Comcast bought NBC

Enlarge (credit: Mike Mozart)

AT&T is fighting back against the Trump administration’s attempt to block its proposed purchase of Time Warner Inc. One week after the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to block the deal, AT&T filed its first answer to the lawsuit yesterday.

AT&T denies the DOJ’s allegations that a combined AT&T and Time Warner would raise prices on consumers, attempt to impede competition from online video distributors, and raise prices on rivals that pay for access to Time Warner programming.

Instead, AT&T says that the merger will benefit consumers without harming rivals. The merger “presents absolutely no risk of harm to competition or consumers,” AT&T wrote. The DOJ has also failed to establish that AT&T and Time Warner “exercise market power with respect to any relevant market,” the filing said. AT&T is just one of many video distributors these days because of the rapid growth of online video services, AT&T said.