Dear Readers,
The June 2017 CPI Antitrust Chronicle® was centered on the policy debates around Index Funds as a possible “New Antitrust Frontier.” Since then, an intense debate rages on over common ownership and possible competitive effects. We decided to revisit this topic and get a sense of how the debate is progressing.
An important step in this debate took place on December 6, 2018 when the Federal Trade Commission held a one-day hearing with panels examining “concerns that acquisitions and holdings of non-controlling ownership interests in competing companies, for example by institutional investors, may have anticompetitive effects.” As FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips noted in his opening remarks, “common ownership . . . is a reality of our after modern economy.”
We are pleased to have contributions this month from a number of panelists featured at the FTC Hearings as well as other great authors.
Lastly, please take the opportunity to visit the CPI website and listen to our selection of Chronicle articles in audio form from such esteemed authors as Maureen Ohlhausen, Herbert Hovenkamp, Richard Gilbert, Nicholas Banasevic, Randal Picker, Giorgio Monti, Alison Jones, and William Kovacic among others. This is a convenient way for our readers to keep up with our recent and past articles on the go, in the gym, or at the beach.
As always, thank you to our great panel of authors.
Sincerely,
CPI Team
