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Two Epic Games directors step down after US Department of Justice investigate games companies under antitrust lawsFingers wagged at Tencent
Fingers wagged at Tencent
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / US Department of Justice / Tencent / Epic Games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / US Department of Justice / Tencent / Epic Games
The DoJannounced the resignations in a press release, saying they’re the result of an investigation into potential antitrust violations. The gist is: since Tencent are massive and own Riot Games outright, they aren’t allowed to have boardroom sway over Epic Games, which technically remains their competitor in the video games industry. It’d be like letting a big suitwearer at Pepsi go to all the important meetings at Coca-cola. This is all law under the Clayton Act, which “prohibits directors and officers from serving simultaneously on the boards of competitors, subject to limited exceptions.”
“No company or individual has admitted to liability in connection with this investigation,” say the DoJ with characteristic legal nous. They also add that Tencent has agreed to amend its shareholder agreement with Epic so that it can’t appoint directors to the Epic board in future. No more boardroom naughtiness, corpoboys and corpogirls!
