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The US Department of Justice says it raised concerns about the positions of directors on two company boards for violating the Clayton Act.
Two executives at Fortnite creator Epic Games who were appointed by Chinese tech company Tencent Holdings have resigned following a US antitrust investigation.
The US Department of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday that it had “expressed concern” that the positions of directors on the boards of both Epic and Tencent violate the Clayton Act because Tencent owns Riot Games, a video game los angeles eSports developer and organizer.
According to the Department of Justice, Section 8 of the Clayton Act “prohibits directors and officers from serving concurrently on the boards of competitors, with limited exceptions.”
“Scrutiny around interlocking addresses remains an enforcement priority for the Antitrust Division,” said Deputy Director of Civil Enforcement Miriam R Vishio of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
Epic Games and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. Tencent declined to comment.
Beyond Fortnite, Epic Games is also known as the developer of the Unreal Engine, an innovative 3D video game engine.
North Carolina-based Epic Games is privately held, but Tencent has a minority stake in the company among its “equity investments” in other video game and media companies, according to the Justice Department.
Other investors in Epic Games include Sony, Disney, Fidelity and BlackRock.
Tencent, one of the world’s largest media companies, is incorporated and domiciled in the Cayman Islands, but headquartered in Shenzhen, China.
The Justice Department’s statement did not mention any national security issues surrounding Tencent or its Chinese ownership, in contrast to the U.S. government’s approach to other Chinese technology companies, such as ByteDance, which owns the networking platform social media TikTok.
The video-sharing app is banned in the US from January 19 if its Chinese owner ByteDance does not sell the platform.
Following the investigation, Tencent decided to “amend its shareholder agreement with Epic to waive its unilateral right to appoint directors or observers to Epic’s board in the future,” according to the Department of Justice.
The statement also said that, despite the resignation of the two anonymous directors, “no company or person has admitted responsibility in relation to this investigation”.
