The U.Ok. Competitors and Markets Authority’s determination to dam Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of “Name of Obligation” maker Activision means the U.S. doesn’t want to face alone in its problem of the large $69 billion deal.

Within the newest hurdle for the deal, the CMA argued the acquisition threatens to harm competitors within the nascent cloud gaming market. However it didn’t problem potential competitors issues in console gaming, after saying final month that proof from business contributors satisfied the company that the transaction would not hurt competitors in that exact market.

That makes the CMA’s stance a narrower one than the argument the U.S. Federal Commerce Fee made in its December problem of the deal earlier than its inner administrative legislation choose. The FTC claimed the proposed acquisition would probably cut back competitors or create monopolies in markets for gaming subscription providers, cloud gaming and high-performance consoles.

The CMA’s determination is a combined bag for the problem within the U.S., partially as a result of it didn’t transfer ahead with a principle about hurt to the console market, in accordance with Daniel Francis, a legislation professor at New York College and former deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competitors. And the idea it did advance, about cloud gaming, depends on an idea of hurt to future competitors, of which U.S. courts could look extra skeptically.

“In the end, the CMA appears to have chosen a path the place the FTC could discover it more durable to observe,” Francis mentioned in an emailed assertion.

Whereas having one other main regulator additionally discover competitors points within the deal could also be encouraging for the FTC, the street forward remains to be not easy, given the excessive burden on the federal government in antitrust circumstances within the U.S. and a typically completely different perspective on competitors legislation.

In keeping with Rebecca Haw Allensworth, an antitrust professor at Vanderbilt Legislation Faculty, European regulators’ “willingness to take a look at the longer term and make some guesses about what the aggressive surroundings would or shall be in just a few years is acceptable and one thing that we wrestle with extra within the U.S.”

Whereas Microsoft mentioned it stays dedicated to the acquisition and plans to enchantment the CMA’s determination, Francis mentioned that is troublesome to do and it’s normal for events to desert at this stage.

Requested for touch upon the CMA’s determination, FTC Director of the Bureau of Competitors Holly Vedova mentioned in an announcement the company additionally has “issues, as defined in our grievance, in regards to the anticompetitive results of this deal.”

Regulators for the European Union are nonetheless reviewing the transaction for competitors issues.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH: Microsoft-Activision deal collapse a ‘discouraging’ transfer for Massive Tech, says former FTC commissioner