Subscribers Refile Lawsuit to Unwind Paramount’s Warner Bros. Megamerger, Citing HBO Max Bundle

Hollywood has spent the past year watching its biggest studios merge, and the fallout is still landing in court. Skydance’s Paramount now owns Warner Bros. Discovery, putting 2 major studios, 2 major streaming services and a huge TV portfolio under one roof. Not everyone is ready to accept that, and a consumer lawsuit challenging the Paramount-Warner Bros. megamerger is back.

Paramount announced in February that it had entered a merger agreement to buy Warner Bros., outmaneuvering rival Netflix. The Justice Department later concluded after an 8-month investigation that the deal was unlikely to harm competition. A coalition of 12 states fought on, but Paramount completed the acquisition on October 6 after a settlement cleared the way.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, consumers have refiled a lawsuit challenging the deal, alleging the merger has consolidated too much power in Hollywood. The suit was filed Thursday in California federal court and asks for a court order unwinding the acquisition. In plain terms, the plaintiffs want the combination undone, not just tweaked.

The complaint leans on recent moves by the new owner. It highlights a bundle of HBO Max and Paramount+ slated for early 2027, the ouster of James Gunn and Peter Safran as heads of DC Studios, and plans to achieve at least $6 billion in annual savings. Fans of both services will recognize why the bundle sits at the center of the argument.

The lawsuit argues that before the deal, a subscriber unhappy with Paramount+ or HBO Max could simply switch to the other. Now both answer to the same owner, which the plaintiffs say leaves less reason to undercut each other on price or programming value. Skydance CEO David Ellison has described the long-term plan as bringing the services together, according to the report.

The suit also alleges the deal reduces competition in streaming, national TV news and first-run theatrical production. That echoes the original complaint, which estimated the combined studio would hold about 23.6% of the market, ahead of Disney at 21.4% and Universal at 20.2%.

The first version came on April 30, when consumers sued to block the acquisition before it closed. Paramount pushed back, and in June it asked a federal judge to throw the case out, calling it meritless. The plaintiffs also wanted to unwind Skydance’s earlier takeover of Paramount Global, which closed in August 2025.

Then came the setback. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín ruled that the plaintiffs had not established standing, but allowed them to file an amended complaint. She wrote that the group had identified only a single, historical price increase on Paramount+ as a concrete injury.

After the deal closed, the group came back. A filing dated October 16 asked the court to make Skydance run the acquired Warner Bros. Discovery businesses separately, so independent HBO Max and Paramount+ services could be preserved if the plaintiffs win. The group asked for a December hearing.

Private antitrust suits against major mergers are uncommon and often hard to win, though successful claims can lead to financial settlements for affected consumers. The plaintiffs also have to clear the same standing question that sank their first attempt. Paramount has consistently argued that the combination creates a stronger competitor rather than a weaker market.

For subscribers, nothing changes overnight, and the services still operate separately for now. The bundle slated for early 2027 is the next real test of how much the merger changes what viewers pay and watch.

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