Eighth FTC Hearing features debate over whether the FTC should look more closely at non-controlling investments in competing companies.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC, or the Commission) held the eighth hearing in its series of 10 planned Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. The FTC invited panelists to comment on corporate governance, institutional investors, and common ownership. According to the Commission, the session focused on “concerns that acquisitions and holdings of non-controlling ownership interests in competing companies, for example by institutional investors, may have anticompetitive effects.” Speakers also discussed the economic literature evaluating the effects of common ownership on competition and corporate governance.