In Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Billing, No. 05-1157 (June 18, 2007), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the securities laws implicitly precluded application of the antitrust laws to agreements among underwriting firms relating to initial public offerings (IPOs). The plaintiffs in Credit Suisse were a class of investors who claimed that the nation’s leading underwriting firms had conspired with one another when they formed syndicates to sell IPOs for several hundred companies by refusing to sell IPO shares unless a buyer committed to purchase additional shares of the same security later at escalating prices (“laddering”), to pay unusually high commissions on subsequent purchases, or to purchase other less-desirable securities from the underwriters (“tying” arrangements).
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