The European Commission has approved the merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing one of the last major regulatory hurdles for the $111 billion deal. The clearance comes as the merger faces mounting legal challenges in the United States, where a federal judge in Oakland temporarily halted the deal on Monday pending a hearing on a preliminary injunction sought by 12 states, and where the Writers Guild of America has now also filed for an injunction to block the deal's closing, arguing it would harm pay and creative opportunities for writers.

Brussels found the tie-up would not harm competition in television or film production, given sufficient global and local rivals would remain, but it did flag concerns over film distribution stemming from Paramount's long-standing joint venture with Universal, United International Pictures. Paramount agreed to unwind that partnership within 13 months and not enter a similar arrangement for at least a decade, commitments the Commission said fully addressed its concerns. Paramount has now secured approval from around 20 countries, including the US Department of Justice, Australia and China, while the UK has yet to decide whether to intervene; the 12-state coalition argues the merger would consolidate two of the top three US cable programmers and two of the leading film distributors, risking higher prices and less output.