Elliott Investment Management has brought an abuse-of-dominance claim arising from the London Metal Exchange’s handling of the 2022 nickel market crisis. Harry Dimoulis tells CDR that, unlike earlier litigation challenging the lawfulness of the LME’s actions, this case asks whether a dominant market operator failed to install and operate the guardrails that should have prevented the market from reaching the point where emergency intervention was required. At the same time, Harry sees a potentially broader development at work: private competition litigation moving beyond claims involving consumers who paid too much and toward dominant private institutions that control the infrastructure or rules through which other businesses operate.
