The European Union’s regulatory arm is investigating Paramount Skydance’s proposed Warner Bros. Discovery megamerger over the financial backing of three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.

The European Commission is investigating the $111 billion Paramount-WBD deal under the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation, looking at the approximately $24 billion being fronted for the takeover by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The EU set an initial July 14 deadline for vetting the deal under the law, Bloomberg reported. That’s in addition to its investigation under standard merger rules with a July 7 deadline.

Paramount has disclosed that the merged Paramount-WBD would be 49.5% owned by foreign investors, with about 38.5% of the equity in the new company owned by the trio of Gulf States. Congressional Democrats have urged the Trump administration to review the proposed deal under U.S. foreign-ownership regulations but so far the White House has not signaled that such a review is in the offing.

A Paramount rep did not respond to a request for comment.

Paramount has previously said the Middle Eastern investors would not have board representation or voting rights in the combined Paramount-WBD, with the new entity fully controlled by the Ellison family and U.S.-based RedBird Capital Partners.

In the U.S., Paramount continues to lobby the Justice Department about the alleged pro-competitive aspects of the WBD merger. Meanwhile, several state attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, are considering filing antitrust litigation seeking to halt the deal.

On Tuesday, the U.K.’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, said it initiated an investigation into the proposed Paramount-WBD deal.

Separately on Wednesday, Paramount said in an SEC filing that on June 9, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) approved the Paramount-WBD merger may be consummated, subject to expiration of a 14-calendar day waiting period that expires June 23, 2026. In its decision, the ACCC said that the deal “is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in relation to the wholesale supply of films for theatrical release in Australia.”

“The materials do not support the view that Paramount and Warner Brothers are particularly close competitors or that they compete more closely with each other than with the other major film studios,” the Australian regulatory commission said.

In addition, on June 5, the New Zealand Commerce Commission informed Paramount Skydance “that it does not intend to consider the Merger further. The relevant clearance regime is voluntary, and the NZCC does not give informal clearances to parties.”

According to Paramount, the deal to merge with Warner Bros. has received approvals from competition authorities in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Serbia and North Macedonia, and from foreign direct investment authorities in Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Czechia, New Zealand, Italy, France and Romania.