Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Exemption for college financial aid collaboration extended into 2022, (Aug 7, 2015)
By Jeffrey May, J.D.
Before heading off on his annual summer vacation, President Obama signed into law the “Need-Based Educational Aid Act of 2015,” extending an existing antitrust exemption for college financial aid collaboration into 2022. The exemption had been set to expire on September 30.
The underlying law allows colleges and universities that admit students on a need-blind basis to collaborate on the formula used to determine need-based financial aid. Colleges are permitted to agree to award students financial aid only on the basis of demonstrated financial need. In addition, they may agree to use common principles of analysis for determining need and to use a common aid application.
Congress quickly approved the legislation to extend the exemption for another seven years. The bi-partisan bill (S. 1482) passed the Senate on July 14 and the House of Representatives on July 27. The bill was presented to the President on July 29 and was signed on August 6.
The new law slightly modifies the exemption, which has been in place since 1992. A provision that extended the antitrust exemption to the exchange of student data through an independent third party under limited circumstances was sunsetted. According to Senator Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.), a sponsor of the measure, that particular provision had never been used by the schools.
The deleted provision specifically provided that two or more colleges were permitted “to exchange through an independent third party, before awarding need-based financial aid to any of such students who is commonly admitted to the institutions of higher education involved, data submitted by the student so admitted, the student's family, or a financial institution on behalf of the student or the student's family relating to assets, liabilities, income, expenses, the number of family members, and the number of the student's siblings in college, if each of such institutions of higher education is permitted to retrieve such data only once with respect to the student.”
News: Antitrust