Your commercial news round-up: Saudi Arabia’s EA purchase, AI controversies, Reform UK’s dispute with France, Uefa’s legal action

Anna O’Boyle is acting senior content and engagement coordinator at LawCareers.Net

Reading time: four minutes

A Saudi-led investment group has purchased the major video game company EA in a billion-dollar deal, continuing the country’s string of sports-related acquisitions. Meanwhile, the publishing world continues to grapple with the contentious process of detecting, confirming and controlling the use of AI within its publications as a $2 million book deal breaks down. Elsewhere, UK politics comes into contest with French sovereignty and maritime law, while the fallout from Gianni Infantino’s controversial plans for Fifa continues to escalate.

Read on for LawCareers.Net’s pick of this week’s top commercial stories.

• Electronic Arts (EA), the maker of video game franchises including The Sims, Battlefield and EA Sports FC, has been acquired for $55 billion (£41 billion) by an investor group led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and including Affinity Partners, the private equity firm run by Jared Kushner. The deal marks one of the biggest buyouts on record and takes EA private after 36 years as a publicly traded company. As a private company, EA will no longer need to report quarterly financial results, which may lessen pressure to meet targets and free the company from scrutiny. While privatisation can often involve job cuts and cost-cutting, EA has given no indication that this will happen. Journalist and author George Osborn claims that Saudi Arabia’s interest in EA is "not purely economic", describing how the sale gives the PIF ownership of "a soft-power asset that is quietly entrenched in the sporting community". Similar acquisitions by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, including the purchase of Newcastle United, have drawn accusations of sportswashing – sponsoring or hosting sporting events to promote a positive public image while diverting attention from human rights issues.


• A high-profile publishing deal for Jerry Falade’s debut novel, Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body, has collapsed after his agents withdrew the manuscript over concerns they could no longer verify whether AI was used in its creation. Having attracted significant industry interest and reportedly receiving an offer for over $2 million (£1.5 million) from Minotaur, owned by Macmillan US, Falade’s novel was planned for publication in 2028. Despite accepting Falade’s initial assurances that AI had not been used, his agents concluded they were “no longer able to authenticate how the manuscript fully evolved from origin to completion” and ended their relationship with the author. This case is the latest in a series of AI publishing controversies, with authors, agents and publishers confronting the difficulties of identifying and managing AI use. In a statement rejecting the claims that he’d used AI, Falade highlighted a clear and sensitive complexity within this process, condemning the response as reflective of a wider racial bias within publishing.


• France has criticised Reform UK’s proposal to use Royal Navy vessels to intercept migrant boats crossing the English Channel and return those onboard to France, saying the policy would violate French sovereignty and breach international law. Reform UK defended their anticipated policy, claiming "Humanitarian missions do not violate maritime or international law”. Despite Reform UK Spokesperson Zia Yusuf accepting that the plans could trigger a "diplomatic argument" with France, the party has insisted on a "commitment under international law" to process migrants. Legal experts have questioned the intended policy’s legal viability, arguing that it’d require France’s consent and emphasising that international law doesn’t entitle states to return asylum seekers to the country from which they departed.


• Opponents of Fifa president Gianni Infantino have threatened “non-cooperation”, potentially including refusals to participate in Fifa meetings, unless he steps down. The reported rebellion follows Uefa’s letter to Infantino outlining its active consideration of “legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints…arising out of and in connection with the FFE plan proposed by Fifa”. Amid escalating opposition to his plan to sell stakes in Fifa competitions to private investors, Serbia, Sweden, Finland and Wales have all publicly withdrawn support for Infantino's bid for a fourth term as Fifa president, with England's Football Association set to follow suit. Countries including Morocco, Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait and Sri Lanka continue to back Infantino, evidencing the current divided state of world football.

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