Warner Bros. Discovery's merger faces a new challenge as United States lawmakers called on the Department of Justice to investigate.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, four Democratic members of Congress -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Joaquin Castro, Rep. David Cicilline and Rep. Pramila Jayapal -- called on the Justice Department to investigate the merger, stating it allowed Warner Bros. to "adopt potentially anticompetitive practices." According to their open letter, the lawmakers contend that the current environment in entertainment doesn't allow for enough competition. Just months prior to the deal, members of Congress issued a warning that the agreement could cause harm to consumers, diversity in programming and hurt "economic opportunity for workers."

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Warner Bros. Cancellations Cause Competetive Concern

In today's letter, the lawmakers pointed to cancellations of several titles in the last year at Warner Bros. that it says "would limit consumer and worker choice." These include Gordita Chronicles, The Time Traveler's Wife, Demimonde and, most famously, the already-completed Batgirl film that WB canceled for a tax write-off despite its $90 million price tax. Warner Bros. sought $3.5 billion in savings following the merger, which put it $50 billion in debt. Warner Bros. Discovery's stock skyrocketed despite the controversies surrounding its cancellations.

"The damage to content creators whose projects are cancelled in deep development and post-production cannot be overstated," the letter reads. "Such cancellations stain these projects, making them less appealing and marketable to other buyers — consumers will likely never be able to watch shows purchased then cancelled by WBD. WBD's conduct amounts to a de facto 'catch and kill' practice, vastly limiting consumer choice."

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This isn't the first bit of legal trouble for Warner Bros. with the United States since the merger. The State of Ohio's most significant pension funds, the State Teachers Retirement System and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, are embroiled in a class-action lawsuit against the company, specifically Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and executive Gunnar Wiedenfels. According to the suit, Warner Bros. withheld accurate information on its finances after the merger, ultimately costing the pensions $25 million.

"Warner Bros. Discovery willfully withheld financial information that it was legally obligated to reveal for one highly self-serving reason -- to ensure the merger's approval," it argued. "In doing so, it created market distortions that cost Ohio's pension systems and other institutional investors dearly, and that is not OK."

Source: The Hollywood Reporter