Who's Really At the Controls?

摘要

U.S. antitrust officials investigating whether the nation's four largest airlines-Delta, American, Southwest, and United-colluded to raise ticket prices are examining executives' communications not only with one another but also with investors that hold huge stakes in some or all of the companies. In an official request, the Department of Justice's antitrust division has asked the carriers for details about meetings with major shareholders in which "industry capacity" was discussed. The DOJ is looking into alleged illegal coordination to control seat capacity, which helps determine ticket prices. Investigators are also studying whether competitiveness suffers when the same group of large investors holds shares in several of an industry's biggest companies. The DOJ's civil investigative demand-similar to a subpoena-doesn't name any investors or individuals or make accusations of wrongdoing. It went to the airlines asking them for information about meeting with investors that own more than 2 percent of at least two of the big four airlines, including BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Primecap, State Street, Vanguard Group, and Capital Group, which runs the American Funds group.