Inspired by recent discussions of inverse magnetic catalysis in the literature, we examine the effects of a uniform external magnetic field on the chiral phase transition in quenched ladder QED at nonzero chemical potential. In particular, we study t
he behaviour of the effective potential as the strength of the magnetic field is varied while the chemical potential is held constant. For a certain range of the magnetic field, the effective potential develops a local maximum. Inverse magnetic catalysis is observed at this maximum, whereas the usual magnetic catalysis is observed at the true minimum of the effective potential.
