[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4025 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4025

     To strengthen antitrust enforcement in the insurance industry.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 29, 2006

   Mr. Specter (for himself, Mr. Lott, Mr. Leahy, and Ms. Landrieu) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To strengthen antitrust enforcement in the insurance industry.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Insurance Industry Antitrust 
Enforcement Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS.

    Section 2(b) of the Act of March 9, 1945 (15 U.S.C. 1012(b)), 
commonly known as the McCarran-Ferguson Act, is amended by--
            (1) inserting ``section 5 of'' after ``Clayton Act, and'';
            (2) inserting ``as section 5 relates to unfair methods of 
        competition,'' after ``Commission Act, as amended,'';
            (3) striking ``to the extent that'' and all that follows 
        through ``law.'' and inserting the following: ``except to the 
        extent--
            ``(1) the conduct of a person engaged in the business of 
        insurance is undertaken pursuant to a clearly articulated 
        policy of a State that is actively supervised by that State; or
            ``(2) the conduct involves a third party not engaged in the 
        business of insurance--
                    ``(A) that collects, compiles or disseminates 
                aggregated historical loss data;
                    ``(B) that develops and disseminates standardized 
                insurance policy forms, contracts addendums or 
                language; or
                    ``(C) that--
                            ``(i) facilitates other joint conduct 
                        pursuant to guidelines issued by the Federal 
                        Trade Commission or existing law; and
                            ``(ii) does not include--
                                    ``(I) exchanging information among 
                                competitors relating to sales, 
                                profitability, prices, marketing, or 
                                distribution of any product, process, 
                                or service that is not reasonably 
                                required for the purposes enumerated in 
                                subparagraph (A) or (B);
                                    ``(II) entering into any agreement 
                                or engaging in any other conduct that 
                                would allocate a market with a 
                                competitor; or
                                    ``(III) entering into any agreement 
                                or conspiracy that would set or 
                                restrain prices of any good or 
                                service.''; and
            (4) adding at the end the following:
``Except as it relates to unfair methods of competition, the Federal 
Trade Commission Act shall be applicable to the business of insurance 
to the extent that such business is not regulated by State law.''.
                                 <all>