AT&T to Court: DOJ Has No Legal Legs to Stand On

In a brief filed in court, AT&T argues that the Department of Justice used bad numbers to come to the wrong conclusion about AT&T-Time Warner merger and a lower court was right to reject that conclusion and allow the deal. AT&T pointed out in its brief to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that, "in the crucible of litigation, DOJ's claims were exposed to be both narrow and fragile," and ultimately fell apart. "Relying primarily on a theoretical model that purports to simulate the bargaining dynamics between programmers and pay-TV distributors, DOJ sought to prove that the merger would likely cause two things to happen: (1) AT&T would charge its rival pay-TV distributors higher wholesale prices for certain Time Warner networks, and (2) rival distributors would in turn increase their retail prices by a collective amount greater than the price savings that millions of AT&T customers would enjoy as a result of the merger," AT&T told the court.