Antitrust Chronicle® – Interlocking

Dear Readers,

Minority shareholdings and interlocking directorships between competitors are, and have always been, a widespread practice in certain industries. Given that, on their face, such links may influence companies’ competitive behavior, they naturally attract the attention of competition authorities, litigants, and courts worldwide. The articles in this Chronicle address the current thinking of the antitrust communities across these bodies as they grapple with this phenomenon in a contemporary context. In particular, in the U.S., this debate plays out within the context of section 8 of the Clayton Act.

Florence Thépot leads off this edition of the CPI Antitrust Chronicle with an article highlighting the potential anticompetitive risks on both sides of the Atlantic raised by interlocking directorates between competitors, as facilitating collusion, and possibly reducing the intensity of competition, especially if combined with financial links. The winds of enforcement may be picking up. 

Yaron Nili provides a short overview of horizontal directors from corporate and antitrust perspectives and concludes with a discussion of recent FTC and DOJ enforcement showing the increased attention to the topic by both regulators and academics.

Nana Wilberforce, Leon B. Greenfield, & Álvaro Mateo Alonso open by noting how the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission both have recently announced an aggressive approach to enforcing Section 8 of