Group asks DOJ to investigate Comcast-NBC merger

John Bergmayer, a senior counsel for the group, sent a letter to Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general for antitrust, asking him to look into whether the companies have violated the terms of the agreement they reached for merger approval in 2011.

“In 2011, the Department of Justice identified harms to competition that the merger of Comcast and NBC/Universal would create,” Bergmayer said. “As a result, it imposed conditions on the combined company intended to protect competition. If those harms are still present, the conditions should be renewed, or replaced with other measures, such as divestitures.”

{mosads}Earlier this month, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) similarly asked for the Justice Department to probe the merger agreement. Blumenthal and Bergmayer both asked regulators to consider extending the merger conditions, which are set to expire next year.

Comcast did not immediately respond when asked for comment, but in response to Blumenthal’s letter this month spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said that the company has given regulators no cause for scrutiny.

“There is no credible basis to pursue an extension or modification of the consent decree or conditions,” Fitzmaurice said in a statement. “For nearly seven years, Comcast has met or exceeded all of the commitments and obligations under the NBCUniversal transaction. We have filed six annual compliance reports with the FCC setting forth in detail our exemplary compliance track record, none of which has been challenged or objected to by the commission or any third parties, including by any member of Congress.”

The Justice Department did not respond when asked for comment.