Competitor Collaborations in the Age of AI: Ancillary Restraints and Practical Antitrust Guardrails, CPI Antitrust Chronicle
March 2026Partners Minna Naranjo and Rishi Satia, and associate Cole Pfeiffer co-authored an article for CPI Antitrust Chronicle examining how antitrust law applies to collaborations among competitors in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
The authors analyze how the ancillary restraints doctrine distinguishes permissible, efficiency-enhancing collaboration from unlawful coordination under Section 1 of the Sherman Act and outline common AI partnership structures that may raise risk.
The article provides a practical framework for assessing when restraints are reasonably necessary to achieve procompetitive benefits, along with “risk flags” and structuring considerations to help companies design AI collaborations that support innovation while mitigating antitrust exposure.