Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: U.S. charges probate research service with allocating customers, (Dec 23, 2015)
Organizations Mentioned:Brandenburger & Davis
By Jeffrey May, J.D.
A California-based company engaged in probate research has been charged with conspiring to allocate customers of its heir location services. Brandenburger & Davis has agreed to plead guilty to the charge and to pay an $890,000 fine for its role in the conspiracy. According to a one-count information filed today in the federal district court in Chicago, Brandenburger & Davis agreed with an unnamed competitor to allocate customers to the co-conspirator company that first made an initial contact with the heir. The filing also named Brandenburger & Davis president Bradley N. Davis (U.S. v. Brandenburger & Davis, Criminal No. 1:15-cr-00752).
According to the Justice Department, providers of heir location services identify heirs to estates of intestate decedents and, in exchange for a contingency fee, establish claims to an inheritance. Providers compete based on contingency fee rates. The defendants allegedly conspired to eliminate competition by agreeing to allocate customers. Brandenburger & Davis participated in the alleged conspiracy for nearly nine years, from November 2003 until August 2012. During that time, the conspirators agreed to pay a portion of the collected contingency fees to the rival that refrained from effective competition, it was charged.
First charge. The charge against Brandenburger & Davis is the first to result from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into customer allocation, price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the heir location services industry, according to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
“The defendants conspired for nearly a decade to enrich themselves at the expense of beneficiaries,” said William Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, in announcing the case. “Heirs of relatives who died without a will deserve better. Working with the FBI and our other law enforcement partners, the Antitrust Division will continue to hold the leaders of companies that corrupt the competitive process accountable for their crimes.”
Companies: Brandenburger & Davis
News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews IllinoisNews