McCray v. Fidelity National Title Insurance
In this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that antitrust claims against title insurance companies that allegedly conspired to fix prices had to be dismissed because the companies had filed their rates with a state agency. The court held that the so-called “filed rate” doctrine precludes federal antitrust liability for companies who have filed their rates in compliance with a state-law regulatory scheme, even if those rates have not been subject to genuine review by the state for reasonableness. The plaintiffs in the case filed a petition for certiorari seeking Supreme Court review of the case. Public Citizen filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the petition for certiorari. The brief explained that the filed rate doctrine is inapplicable to state rate-filing schemes, as opposed to federal-law rate-filing requirements, and that state regulatory laws can provide a shield against antitrust liability only when the state affirmatively authorizes and actively supervises anticompetitive conduct. However, in February 2013, the Court denied the petition.