Late last month, the country's Competition and Markets Authority officially moved to block the deal - unlike the EU. As a result, UK Members of Parliament have been questioning the CMA on why it came to a different decision to Europe and indeed other countries. Here's the authority's response (via Eurogamer):
"The UK has always encouraged - and it is the CMA's duty to encourage - open competitive markets. We are vigilant - as it is our duty to be - to investments that consolidate an already-entrenched market power.
I would challenge the premise that there is an impact on international confidence on doing business in the UK,"
The CMA also touched on the fact that both it and the EU commission took issue with similar aspects of the proposed deal. However, the CMA felt that it "was not appropriate to accept' the remedy that Microsoft put forward.
"The [EU] Commission agreed the deal would give rise to competition concerns, there's no difference between the CMA and EC there [...] but the Commission has however concluded it appropriate to accept [Microsoft's] remedy.
They have their own test to apply and they've reached their own view, and they're fully entitled to reach that view. But we remain of the view, from a UK perspective, that it was not appropriate to accept that remedy."
Thanks to a speedy response to the EU's verdict from Microsoft president Brad Smith, we have a bit of an idea as to what this remedy actually was. Smith says that the company is offering "automatic licenses" to competing cloud gaming services - something that seemingly wasn't enough to impress the CMA.
