Sen. Tim Scott Warns of ‘Significant Antitrust Problems’ with Netflix-WB Deal

Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) is warning of the dangers to customers the Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery could pose, and he wants regulators to give the deal a “rigorous antitrust review.”

The senator raised his concerns in a letter sent to the U.S. Antitrust Division, calling for close scrutiny of the deal, The Wrap adds.

“Such a transaction raises the prospect of significant antitrust problems in streaming and for the movie industry more broadly,” Scott says in his letter. “The transactions warrants rigorous antitrust review under all applicable antitrust merger and monopolization laws, and to the extent appropriate, a lawsuit to block it.”

Scott says he is worried that if approved, such a deal may lead to wildly higher prices for consumers, not just for streaming, but also for theater goers.

“The proposed acquisition is so facially problematic that one must ask whether Netflix entered into the agreement knowing that the deal would be blocked, but it nonetheless did so with the expectation that the costs and other burdens of a years-long antitrust fight would cause Warner Bros. Discovery to wither on the vine into a severely weakened competitor,” he theorized.

Scott is not the only voice raising a warning about the acquisition deal. U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R, UT), who wrote in a post on X that the deal “should send alarm to antitrust enforcers around the world.”