The Research Of The Antitrust Exemption Of Insurance In The United States

The most perfect and mature Antitrust law is in the United States all over theworld. There is also a long-history and plentiful experience of the application ofAntitrust laws in the insurance industry, which is an indispensable reference materialto the antitrust legislation and implement antitrust exemption for the insuranceindustry in our country. The national system of the United States is Binary system,which has federal and state government. Because of the judgment of Paul v. Virginia(1968) which regard insurance business as not interstate commerce, as a result, theinsurance business in the United State is under the regulation of the states government.However, until the case United States v. South Easten Underwriters Association(1944),the Supreme Court declared that the insurance industry should be regulated by the<Sherman act> as well as federal government, and this judgment led to the ImperialSword of American Insurance antitrust exemption--<McCarran Ferguson Act>.Aslong as when it comes to insurance antitrust immunity system, MFA is inevitable tobe mentioned, cause it almost puts insurance business completely within the scope ofthe exemption of antitrust law.In the existence of more than half a century of MFA,the Supreme Court defined “insurance business”,“regulation by states”, and”boycott” via various cases which relate to the antitrust exemption of insurance.Nowadays, with the constant development of the insurance industry, the growingquestion to the MFA is from all over the states, the controversy between whetherreserving or abolishing becomes more and more fierce. There is bill about abolishingor restricting MFA in the congress every year. So far, although the bill to abolishMFA are all failed, the scope of the insurance antitrust exemption gets smaller andsmaller, the Economics and law have agreed on reducing the application of MFA.There are large differences in national conditions, economic situation betweenChina and America, as well as the development history, environment of insuranceindustry. Although it is of great significance of the reference to American insuranceantitrust exemption system, the premise to establish a system which proceed from ournational conditions is the intensive analysis and selective borrowing.