Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery: EU Antitrust Experts Say $83B Deal Unlikely To Be Blocked

Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery: EU Antitrust Experts Say $83B Deal Unlikely To Be Blocked — But Conditions May Be Imposed On Merger

Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery: EU Antitrust Experts Say $83B Deal Unlikely To Be Blocked — But Conditions May Be Imposed On Merger

Deadline · Netflix/Warner Bros. Discovery

Jake Kanter

Fri, December 5, 2025 at 9:03 AM EST

3 min read

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Netflix’s blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is unlikely to be blocked by regulators in the European Union, according to antitrust experts.

Netflix’s proposed $83B takeover of WBD’s movie and TV studios and HBO Max was confirmed on Friday morning, dramatically reshaping the entertainment industry by bringing together a portfolio of megabrands that includes Stranger Things and Harry Potter.

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Experts who keep a close eye on the European Commission’s competition work told Deadline that it would be surprising if Netflix’s move was vetoed, but said any deal would likely trigger an investigation that could recommend merger conditions.

“The EU never stops these deals. They always do access remedies,” said Cristina Caffarra, a competition economist, who has advised companies including Apple and Amazon on antitrust matters in Europe. “I’m not saying it will sail through, [but the process will be] sabre rattling, remedy, clear.”

Nicolas Petit, a professor of competition law at the European University Institute, agreed: “The European Commission rarely fights these kinds of mergers.”

There is also a view that blocking the merger would not play well with Donald Trump — even amid suggestions that he supported Larry Ellison and David Ellison’s efforts to acquire WBD. “The geopolitics of prohibiting a merger between two purely U.S. firms would be very tricky with all the trade war talk,” Petit explained.

Skydance’s merger with Paramount was waived through with zero fuss. The last major deal blocked by EU regulators was Booking.com’s 2023 acquisition of Etraveli, which is now the subject of an appeal.

Investigation & Remedies

There is little question that the European Commission will examine the takeover. Companies must notify European authorities if their combined worldwide revenue exceeds €5B ($5.8B), or if their European sales total more than €250M — thresholds that will be comfortably cleared by the might of Netflix-WBD.

Caffarra predicts that the European Commission will order a so-called “Phase II” investigation, which would involve closer scrutiny of Netflix’s plans for WBD. Such an investigation takes at least 90 days to be completed.

Rather than an outright block, perhaps the bigger question is what remedies the EU might demand. Experts said Netflix could be compelled to honor and maintain film and TV licensing agreements to prevent it from holding a monopoly over content.

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“Framing appropriate remedies might be the most challenging aspect of this merger review,” said Peter Alexiadis, a visiting scholar at Kedge Business School in Paris, who worked as a competition law and regulatory policy specialist in Brussels for 30 years.

He added that once regulators get into the details, there could be all sorts of questions around dominance, including Netflix’s ability to train AI on an enormous library of content to supercharge its content recommendation machine.

Guy Bisson, executive director of Ampere Analysis, said getting EU sign-off might require a more dramatic concession from Netflix: “I don’t think Warner studio operations plus Netflix is particularly problematic, but Netflix plus Max may be the sticking point, a problem that should be solvable by potentially selling that operation off.”

There is some precedent here with Disney’s takeover of Fox in 2018. As part of securing European Commission approval, Disney committed to divesting its interest in factual channels, including History, Crime & Investigation, and Lifetime.

For its part, Netflix is upbeat about clearing regulatory hurdles. On a call on Friday, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said: “We’re highly confident in the regulatory process. This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it’s pro-creator, it’s pro-growth.”

A European Commission spokesperson said: “This transaction has not been formally notified to the Commission. If a transaction constitutes a concentration and has an EU dimension, it is always up to the companies to notify it to the Commission.”

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