Eleven States Sue Asset Managers For Alleged ESG Antitrust Violations

The day before Thanksgiving, eleven Republican state attorneys-general (representing Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia and Wyoming) filed a lawsuit against three prominent asset managers, alleging that these companies colluded to reduce coal output through their holdings in nine coal companies, thus reducing the supply of electricity and raising electricity prices for consumers in the United States. Specifically, the complaint alleges that "Defendants have leveraged their holdings and voting of shares to facilitate an output reduction scheme, which has artificially constrained the supply of coal, significantly diminished competition in the markets for coal, increased energy prices for American consumers, and produced cartel-level profits for Defendants." Notably, the state attorneys-general state that the asset managers "have publicly defended their anticompetitive scheme with appeals to