Federal Lawsuit Alleges 16 Elite Universities Engaged In Price Fixing [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

Source: Forbes

Sixteen of the nation’s most elite universities are being sued for alleged violations of antitrust laws by colluding to unfairly limit student financial aid.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Illinois federal court by several law firms representing five students who previously attended some of the universities. was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

The plaintiffs claim that the universities engaged in a price fixing scheme by sharing a methodology for how much financial aid would be awarded to prospective students. Specifically, the suit alleges that the defendant universities “have participated in a price-fixing cartel that is designed to reduce or eliminate financial aid as a locus of competition, and that in fact has artificially inflated the net price of attendance for students receiving financial aid.”

If true, that would be a violation of Section 568 of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, which says that universities can collaborate when they develop their financial aid formulas, but only if they do not consider applicants’ financial need in their individual admission decisions.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2022/01/10/federal-lawsuit-alleges-16-elite-universities-engaged-in-price-fixing/?sh=287b3d1a73ad

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The defendants are Brown University, California Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, Columbia University in the City of New York, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Rice University, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University.