Insurance-Related Antitrust Defense

Alston & Bird consistently combines two of its core practices, using its extensive knowledge of the insurance industry and pairing it with its preeminent antitrust practice. Clients regularly retain Alston & Bird to represent them in antitrust trials, class actions, multidistrict litigation and business counseling.

Antitrust Litigation 

We routinely represent clients in bet-the-company insurance-related antitrust litigation. We know our insurance industry clients’ unique needs and make it our business to understand them. Insurance companies frequently retain us to serve as lead trial counsel and guide them through sensitive antitrust litigation in antitrust trials, class actions, multidistrict litigation and other litigation involving complex antitrust issues. 

We strive to ensure that our litigation service improves your business objectives and maintains the high quality legal representation needed to abate the litigation threat at hand. 

Mergers and Acquisitions 

We also have a deep bench of experience handling the significant antitrust issues associated with mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry. We regularly counsel clients on the structure of, and risks associated with, proposed transactions, obtain necessary pre-merger clearances in compliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and successfully navigate clients through government merger investigations with no or minimal divestitures. For our clients that operate on a global scale, we also assist with international pre-merger notifications, helping clients navigate the more than 70 jurisdictions that require filings and approvals for transactions that satisfy jurisdiction-specific criteria. Our antitrust lawyers also represent clients in investigations by the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and foreign enforcement agencies, including the European Union and the Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese Fair Trade Commissions, to name a few. 

Business Counseling 

Clients also regularly turn to us for efficient and practical antitrust counseling on a wide variety of issues, from participation in trade associations and patent pools to the intricacies of daily contract, pricing and distribution activities. We also have created dozens of industry-specific antitrust compliance policies and training programs for U.S. and foreign companies seeking to prevent antitrust problems.

• Lead trial counsel to one of the nation’s largest auto insurers in an MDL action involving more than 20 antitrust suits brought by body shop plaintiffs alleging price-fixing and boycott claims based on an alleged conspiracy among the defendant insurers.
• Counsel to an insurance company facing regulatory investigation, including a lawsuit brought by a state’s attorney general, alleging claims under state antitrust statutes.
• Successful representation of an insurance company against allegations by policyholders that automobile insurers artificially maintain the price of their automobile insurance policies.
• Engaged to submit an amicus curiae brief in the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of a client facing antitrust allegations based on improperly limiting insurance coverage to policyholders.