In re Pennsylvania Title Ins. Antitrust Litigation, No. 08-1202 (E.D. Pa.)

In the Pennsylvania Title Insurance Antitrust Litigation, Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP represents a class of direct purchasers of title insurance, who allege that title insurers in Pennsylvania utilized a rating agency (called the Title Insurance Rating Bureau of Pennsylvania) to facilitate a cartel and impose illegal cartel pricing on policyholders in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act.   The plaintiffs also allege that the title insurers conspired to hide unlawful kickback and fee arrangements in an effort to artificially inflate the amounts consumers pay as premiums for title insurance.  Faruqi & Faruqi partner Peter Kohn was appointed co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in this case.  The case was dismissed on summary judgment when the district court held that the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance supervised ratemaking in a sufficiently adequate manner to trigger Parker immunity (also called “state action” immunity), and that no reasonable jury could find otherwise.