Online Edition '23

Consecutive

2023

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) first began to emerge in the 1990s as an alternative means to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) and take private companies public. With the rapid increase in popularity of SPACs in 2020 and early 2021, and with many politicians and mainstream celebrities trying to get a piece of the SPAC action, it has become far more important to evaluate carefully the merits and potential drawbacks of this process. This Article focuses primarily on addressing one key question: Are public investors who sign on to SPACs adequately protected by the current legal and regulatory frameworks, and, if not, what changes ought to be made going forward to help ensure they are?

In the summer of 2023, Lionel Messi agreed to a $150 million, two-and-a-half-year deal with Inter Miami, a U.S. Major League Soccer (MLS) team. Messi took this deal despite offers to return to FC Barcelona, where he has played before, and to play for Al-Hilal, a Saudi team where he was offered compensation over $500 million per season. To compete with these bids and ultimately sign Messi, Inter Miami offered a first-of-its-kind deal structure.

The city of Chicago owns over 10,000 vacant lots with another 16,634 on their way to becoming city-owned due to back taxes and unpaid fees. These vacant properties can “devastate the neighborhood and block, undermine the neighbors’ quality of life and diminish the value of nearby properties[.]” Vacant lots are associated with crime, lack of housing and commercial spaces, and destabilization of the neighborhood, all while bringing in no tax revenue for the city. Chicago has tried numerous reforms to return vacant land to productive (and taxable) uses, but much of the city-owned land has stuck with the city.

I. Introduction

This article argues that the accepted resolution to the “bypassed distributor” problem in antitrust law, although adopted by numerous courts, is wrong.  As a result of this error, courts have incorrectly permitted bypassed distributors to recover hundreds of millions of dollars despite never actually having suffered any injury.  Moreover, these courts have violated Article III of the U.S. Constitution, by permitting plaintiffs with no injuries, and thus no standing, to recover damages.  Courts should therefore revisit the bypassed distributor problem. 

I. Introduction

I. Introduction

Overview

Discussion

I. Introduction