Summary

This opinion responds to a request from the House Financial Services Committee in connection with the Committee's examination of the possibility of comprehensive insurance regulatory reform. The opinion addresses the evolution of the McCarran-Ferguson Act's exemption from the federal antitrust laws for certain insurance-related activities. Today, only those activities directly tied to ratemaking and other functions at the core of and unique to the insurance industry, and activities directly related to the relationship between insurer and insured, are deemed to be the "business of insurance" potentially immune from the antitrust laws, provided they are also "regulated by State law" and do not constitute "an agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or (an) act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation."