Claims Dismissed in Insurer Class Action

On April 9, 2007, Judge Garret E. Brown of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed bid-rigging claims brought against Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. and several other insurance brokers and providers in a long-running, multidistrict class action lawsuit. The judge dismissed all of the plaintiffs' claims without prejudice, finding that they had not submitted enough evidence to prove that the alleged conspiracies between insurance companies and brokers were illegal. The plaintiffs alleged the defendants participated in broker-centered conspiracies that aimed to allocate customers and reduce competition. The plaintiffs alleged that the conspiracies date back to the mid-1990’s, when insurance brokers consolidated their markets.