Private Equity Buyouts: Anti- or Pro-Competitive?

Private equity firms have become common owners of established firms in concentrated markets. Antitrust authorities therefore intervene in mergers and acquisitions involving PE firms. In this article, we discuss the antitrust implications of an active PE market and whether there are any special characteristics of PE ownership that are important for antitrust regulation and enforcement. To gain some perspective, we approach the question from three pillars of industrial organization: (i) identifying and blocking mergers that create substantial market power; (ii) detecting and preventing predatory behavior; and (iii) detecting and preventing collusive behavior.