A lawsuit alleges Brown is in a price-fixing scheme. Will it settle?
A lawsuit over an alleged financial aid price-fixing scheme involving Brown University and numerous other schools just saw its first settlement. Does that mean Brown might settle, too? If not, it might leave itself in a tough spot.
Here's how it started: In January 2022, a suit was filed in federal court in Illinois, claiming that 16 elite schools came together to devise a price-fixing arrangement through which they would limit financial aid for students. (A 17th school was eventually added. A full list is below.)
Last week, one of the schools – the University of Chicago – reached a $13.2 million settlement in the case.
This leaves Brown among the 16 remaining defendants, each of which must now decide whether to settle or wage a battle in which they'll likely face hefty legal fees.
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Brown will also need to consider the legal term "joint and several liability." Now that the group of schools has narrowed from 17 to 16, the remaining defendants could bear responsibility for the whole case that has been brought. Yet there is no indication that any other defendants are settling, and Brown has not replied to repeated requests for comment.
The case is in the discovery phase, with a hearing set for Thursday about accepting the University of Chicago settlement.
Other schools named are Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Notre Dame and the University of Pennsylvania.
Not the only case against Brown over alleged price-fixing
Meanwhile, Brown is also contending with a similar but narrower lawsuit filed in March by attorneys representing two student athletes: Tamenang Choh, who played for the men's basketball team and has since graduated, and Grace Kirk, a rising senior who plays for the women's basketball team.
At the heart of the case is the Ivy League Agreement, a pact among the schools to not offer athletic scholarships to their recruits. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue the deal is anti-competitive and flies in the face of antitrust laws. (Brown gave both Choh and Kirk only need-based financial aid, even though one of them was offered a sports scholarship from a different school, attorneys said.)
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In their complaint, Choh and Kirk's lawyers write that schools "aggressively compete" with one another and that the agreement "unlawfully limits competition" to recruit athletes.
While the Ivy League has raised multiple defenses against that argument, one of its primary shields is so-called campus culture. The Ivy League has argued that it is unique in that it treats athletes and non-athletes alike. But the plaintiffs' attorneys want proof that claim is true.
The case is in an early stage, though it could apply to Ivy League athletes who played from 2019 to the present, totaling roughly 30,000 people.
The Ivy League has asked Connecticut District Court Judge Alvin Thompson to dismiss the case, and he is weighing whether to do that.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Will Brown settle in price-fixing lawsuit? University is mum.
