–Abuse of market dominance is rife and incoming president Donald Trump is signalling he might make it worse
Opinion by Mathew Carr
Jan. 12, 2025 — If Joe Biden really does want to help save the climate before he leaves office, he’ll provide safety against antitrust lawsuits for US companies, insurers and banks seeking to collaborate with each other to do the same.
Fear of competition lawsuits is one reason why the Net Zero Banking Alliance is shedding members, I suspect.
In the UK, the competition regulator the Competition & Markets Authority has given since 2023 guidance to clarify how climate collaboration can happen … eg via agreements between companies addressing environmental sustainability, including climate change; the regulator offers an “open-door” policy for businesses seeking guidance; guidance includes a roadmap to help businesses navigate different categories of risk. (see below) The EU says its safe-harbour guidance covers “horizontal cooperation agreements” (see below). Japan has guidelines on collaboration, too (see below).
Following the money, the reason why Joe Biden has not done this already is because he has a “banking dominance” strategy.
A bit like Trump’s “energy dominance” strategy, but more secret (greed is a bad look, you see). Biden’s had a dirty-energy dominance strategy, too …let’s be honest…but he at least tried to limit the expansion of LNG (I think he did. Sorta. Or he pretended to.)
The real reason competition policy is awkward … it’s exposing the dominated nature of many existing global markets.
Americans dominate social media and feel the need to shut down rivals it doesn’t own — Tik Tok, later this month, for instance.
Americans dominated the theft of everyone’s privacy for private-sector profit the past thirty years.
Americans are now dominating AI and will probably try to sell this (free to read) story back to me at some stage, after they steal it from me and give me no credit.
Americans (4% of the world), or at least their corrupt leaders, love to dominate, while accusing others of wanting to do so (eg China) and while saying they believe in “democracy” (where voter population and the dominant global view for the need for urgent climate action would matter to them).
But the belief in democracy, domestic or global, is a pretence. US leaders talk climate action, even while wrecking nature, the climate … and while worsening inequality and creating climate injustice …domestic and global.
This abuse of market dominance in energy and finance and the rest is actually against the spirit of all competition law around the world and possibly the letter of much of it.
American leaders and banks don’t seem to care. Actually, a lot of the 0.1 richest and most powerful don’t seem to care.
All they care about is money and growth for the sake of growth — even when that growth hurts everyone.
It’s shameful ….and it will go down in history as such.
There is a glimmer of hope.
The Guardian newspaper asked banks why they were leaving the net-zero alliance. Here’s a snip, (where Citigroup said it might be easier to provide finance to the emerging world from outside the alliance ….that might curb worsening climate injustice if I’m being optimistic—- it might also sting ordinary US taxpayers if they have to bail out banks again like they did about 15 years ago).
So the NZBA was about ensuring the emerging world didn’t get too much climate finance ….immediately at least? It needs to be investigated.
That would seem an abuse by a global finance system dominated by OECD-based banks and insurers.
Other questions, too. Was the NZBA an actual conspiracy to ensure banks get most of the money from the climate transition and not taxpayers (which would otherwise get the revenue from the sale of carbon allowances)?
Was it banks /central banks using their dominance across the global economy to hurt the emerging world, ramp interest rates higher when that was not really necessary and reward big, dominating American lenders and corporations?
At least Trump is honest when he says he’s pursuing global market dominance in energy.
What’s surprising is the lack of push back on that. By anyone.. That particular failure is cowardly in the extreme.
Is the pursuit of fossil-fuel dominance really what the world needs right now? I say absolutely not.
Let’s hope competition law is now used to speed the climate transition instead of slow it. Go on Joe, you’ve got a few days left.
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What do you think? How am I getting this wrong? mathew@carrzee.net
(Updates to add examples and links and photos and to add clarity. More to come)
NOTES
Read more: Biden Should Underpin Climate Action & Provide Safety Against Antitrust Lawsuits (Like UK, EU, Japan Does) 3Cool International Chamber of Commerce report on how many companies might be abusing dominant positions by slowing a switch to less-dirty systems, cleaner markets / rivals.
Japan guidance:
The Japan Free Trade Commission has formulated guidelines for the purposes of preventing anticompetitive conduct that stifles innovation such as the creation of new technologies, and of encouraging the activities of enterprises, etc. toward the realization of a green society by further improving transparency in the application and enforcement of the Antimonopoly Act in relation to the activities of enterprises, etc., and predictability for enterprises, etc.
The UK clarified its stance on its law last year.
https://www.iigcc.org/insights/cma-study-sustainability-agreement
UK guidance
EU guidelines
UK regulatory Press release:
CMA launches Green Agreements Guidance to help businesses co-operate on environmental goals
New guidance published by the CMA will help businesses understand how they can collaborate on environmental sustainability goals without breaking the law. From: Competition and Markets Authority
Published 12 October 2023
- Guidance to give firms greater clarity about agreements addressing environmental sustainability including climate change
- CMA to offer open-door policy for businesses seeking guidance
- Campaign includes roadmap and video to help businesses navigate different categories of risk
The new Green Agreements Guidance, published today by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) following extensive consultation, explains how competition law applies to environmental sustainability agreements between firms operating at the same level of the supply chain, to help them act on climate change and environmental sustainability.
The Green Agreements Guidance – formally, ‘Guidance on the application of the Competition Act 1998 to environmental sustainability agreements’ – sets out the key principles which apply, along with practical examples that businesses can use to inform and shape their own decisions when working with other companies on environmental sustainability initiatives. It explains that the CMA does not expect to take enforcement action against agreements that are in line with the guidance. There is also a chapter dealing specifically with how agreements tackling climate change will be considered.
The guidance follows the environmental sustainability advice the CMA provided to the UK government in March 2022. As part of that work, the CMA found businesses wanted more clarity about what is, and what is not, legal when working together towards environmental sustainability goals. The CMA publicly consulted on a draft of this guidance earlier this year, and this final version reflects the useful comments received from a wide range of interested people and businesses.
This is part of a wider awareness campaign which the CMA has launched today which includes a video and a roadmap. The roadmap focuses on different categories of risk to help businesses navigate what they need to consider as a first step before reading the full CMA guidance document or seeking legal advice.
Example: The fashion sector agrees to set targets for gradually increasing the amount of sustainable materials used in their clothing ranges. The CMA’s guidance explains how this should be done so these businesses can be confident their agreement complies with competition law.
For companies which are in doubt, the CMA is operating an open-door policy where businesses (and representative bodies such as trade associations), non-governmental organisations and charities can approach the CMA for informal guidance on proposed environmental sustainability initiatives. You can read more about the CMA open-door policy here.
Sarah Cardell, CMA Chief Executive, said:
We know that tackling climate change and promoting environmental sustainability matters, and supporting businesses to do this is a priority for the CMA. So, we have developed the Green Agreements Guidance for all companies who are considering collaborating so they can understand how to agree green goals without breaking the law.
The guidance goes further than before – it gives firms greater certainty about when agreements that genuinely contribute to addressing climate change will be exempt from competition law. Our open-door policy means we can work with companies to give them tailored informal guidance on how they can work together to boost the green economy.
The Green Agreements Guidance published today is part of a wider range of documents on agreements between businesses at the same level of the supply chain (so-called ‘horizontal agreements’). This follows work from the CMA’s Sustainability Taskforce after it published its environmental sustainability advice to the UK government in March 2022.
Notes to editors
- To discuss initiatives on environmental sustainability, and make use of our open-door policy, please get in touch with the Sustainability Taskforce via sustainabilityguidance@cma.gov.uk
- In line with the CMA’s strategy, there are three main ways the CMA is seeking to promote environmental sustainability and help accelerate the transition to a net zero economy. These are helping to ensure: i) that markets for environmentally sustainable products or services develop in ways favourable to competition and consumers (see for example the market study on electric vehicle charging points), ii) that consumers are able to make informed choices about the environmental impact of the goods and services they use (see work on green claims) and iii) that competition law is not an unnecessary barrier to companies pursuing environmental sustainability initiatives. This Guidance on Green Agreements is part of this third area of focus.
- The CMA Annual Plan 2023 to 2024 outlines the strategy to promote environmental sustainability.