Are licensing boards vulnerable to antitrust suits?

Vanderbilt University released a report on Tuesday on the reaction of two law professors whose research was used for the recent SCOTUS Dental board ruling.

The February 25 ruling in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission affirmed the FTC’s position that state licensing boards controlled by “active market participants” are exempt from antitrust lawsuits only if they are also supervised by the state itself.

As they are currently composed, most licensing boards in the United States are groups of licensed practitioners in their fields. This can lead to anticompetitive regulation that stifles competition, argued Rebecca Haw Allensworth and Aaron Edlin in an article for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

“Although exactly how states will react to the Supreme Court’s opinion is uncertain, one thing is clear,” professor Allensworth said. “The Supreme Court is intolerant of cartel activity, whatever its form, and it has taken an important step toward restoring competition as a real force in the professions.”

Full Content: Vanderbilt University

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