Comcast offers a model for AT&T-Time Warner deal scrutiny

If US regulators impose conditions on an eventual approval of the proposed AT&T-Time Warner tie-up, they are likely to start with the more than 150 provisions they required for a similar transaction five years ago.

In its most significant orders, the US Department of Justice in January 2011 forced a merger between Comcast and NBCUniversal to license programming to other distributors, refrain from retaliating against content providers who supply rival cable companies and give equal treatment to competing online products on its internet network. The head of DoJ’s antitrust division at the time applauded the compromise. “The conditions imposed will maintain an open and fair marketplace while at the same time allow the innovative aspects of the transaction to go forward,” says Christine Varney, now head of the antitrust practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which is representing Time Warner in the AT&T deal. But technology, markets and politics have all changed since 2011, potentially complicating the AT&T-Time Warner union, according to antitrust specialists in Washington.