
More than a dozen top US colleges, including Yale, Columbia, and MIT, must face antitrust litigation over their alleged conspiracy to hold down financial aid packages while telling the world they admit applicants regardless of financial need, a federal judge in Chicago ruled Monday.
Judge Matthew F. Kennelly let the lawsuit move forward in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, saying the schools aren’t covered by the so-called 568 exemption, which provides a partial antitrust shield for colleges that act in concert to promote need-blind admissions.
Kennelly cited plausible allegations that the schools admit at most only some students on a need-blind basis. The colleges have argued that the evidence doesn’t back up the claims, but attacks on the sufficiency of the evidence are for a later stage of the case, the judge said.
The other colleges targeted by the proposed class action are Brown, Caltech, the University of Chicago, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Northwestern, Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Rice, and Vanderbilt.
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
Featured News
UK Business Secretary Calls for More Agile Competition Regulator
Feb 13, 2025 by
CPI
Germany’s Antitrust Regulator Raises Concerns Over Apple’s App Tracking Policies
Feb 13, 2025 by
CPI
$60 Billion Nissan-Honda Merger Falls Apart
Feb 13, 2025 by
CPI
DOJ Moves to End Protections for Three Regulatory Agencies
Feb 13, 2025 by
CPI
Meta to Allow Rivals to List Ads on Facebook Marketplace Following EU Fine
Feb 13, 2025 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – International Criminal Enforcement
Jan 23, 2025 by
CPI
The Antitrust Division’s Recent Work to Combat International Cartels
Jan 23, 2025 by
Emma Burnham & Benjamin Christenson
Information Sharing: The New Frontier of U.S. Antitrust Enforcement
Jan 23, 2025 by
Brian P. Quinn, Casey Kovarik & Michael Tubach
The Key Role of Guidelines on Exchanges of Information Among Competitors and the Divergent Transatlantic Paths
Jan 23, 2025 by
Rosa Abrantes-Metz & Albert Metz
Leniency, Whistleblowers, and Compliance
Jan 23, 2025 by
Richard Powers, Tara O’Malley & Cory Gordon