Free Press Goes to Court to Stop Paramount's Toothless Settlement

OAKLAND — Early on Thursday morning, Free Press filed an emergency motion with the federal court in California overseeing the lawsuit against Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The motion, filed jointly with other members of the Block the Merger coalition, asks Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín to grant Free Press and allies the opportunity to formally oppose the weak and unenforceable consent decree that state attorneys general entered into with Paramount on Monday.

Free Press has blasted the deal because it fails to protect workers, consumers and free speech.

After filing a lawsuit to block the merger in July, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that he would not accept behavioral remedies in any settlement because they are “empty promises, self-serving promises, promises that are unenforceable, that won’t be kept, that history shows won’t be kept.” Yet that is exactly and exclusively what his consent decree with Paramount contains.

Judge Martínez-Olguín has scheduled a hearing for Thursday morning to “address certain outstanding questions regarding the factual and legal underpinnings of the parties’ proposed consent decree, as well as the implementation of the proposed consent decree.” The judge may rule on the motion from Free Press and the Block the Merger parties as early as that hearing.

Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González, co-counsel on the motion, said:

“Hundreds of thousands of people across the country called on state attorneys general to enforce the law and to protect consumers, workers and free speech. The weak and unenforceable deal the AGs struck with Paramount leaves us in the lurch. We deserve our day in court.”