There’s a lot of talk of potential FTC Controversy across the media, as it turns out the presiding Judge’s son just happens to work at Microsoft. Views are that Judge Jacqueline Corley should have recused herself due to a conflict of interest.
So much so that ‘The Revolving Door Project’, (a watchdog group), wrote to Judge Corley asking that she recuse herself from the case. In the letter they stated the following;
“We were discouraged to learn from recent reports that you have chosen to preside over the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge to Microsoft acquisition of Activision while Microsoft employs your son.
This relationship may violate Canons 2 and 3 of the Code of Conduct for US judges”.
They closed out their letter with the following request to Judge Corley;
“Given the ethics concerns that your son’s employment by Microsoft raises, we call on you to recuse yourself from the Microsoft-Activision acquisition case effective immediately.”
FTC Controversy: Further reading
There are several points to note in this matter. The first thing to note is that Judge Corley herself disclosed this information at the games lawsuit from earlier this year, and again at the commencement of the FTC proceedings. Judge Corley even so much as joked at the pre-evidential hearing that there was probably a copy of Call of Duty lying about her house and no comment was raised by the FTC at that point.
It was the FTC who specifically wanted the case heard in Northern California due to Judge Corley’s previous involvement with the games lawsuit and she was randomly allocated this case after the previous judge, Judge Vince Chhabria, recused himself from the case.
Despite Microsoft wanting the case to be filed in Columbia, the FTC wanted this case heard in Northern California and there has been no complaint directly from them in terms of conflict of interest.
A further point to note is whether Judge Corley’s son would be ‘substantially affected’ by the outcome of the acquisition case. He works for a company which employs over 200,000 people, is reported to work outside the gaming division in a non-managerial position which would have little to no impact on Xbox. We don’t see that he would ‘substantially affected’ in this matter but The Revolving Door Project countered back with the following;
“These stakes are high enough to affect any Microsoft Employee’s confidence in their employer’s financial future and thus their employment security, which constitutes ‘an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome’ of the acquisition case.”
Given that the argument isn’t even coming from the FTC themselves, it seems very unlikely that anything will come of this. And some comments across social media have been highly critical of the Revolving Door Project for getting involved in this matter when the FTC presented such a weak case in court.
Given the recent court decision to side with Microsoft, could this be seen as adding to the FTC Controversy. But could we see the FTC bring this up now they are planning to appeal the decision? Do you think Judge Corley should have recused herself in the first place? Get in touch and let us know your thoughts!
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