Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann said that the state filed a lawsuit on August 24 in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas accusing insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos., insurer American International Group Inc., and three other insurance companies and their subsidiaries of price fixing and other anticompetitive activities.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the lawsuit alleges that the companies unlawfully conspired to allocate customers, divide markets and restrain competition for property/casualty policies for businesses in Ohio from January 2001 until late 2004. Mike Kachel, a spokesman for Marsh & McLennan, says that the company has already settled claims brought by most of its clients and will vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit.  AIG had no comment.  In October 2006 Zurich American Insurance Co. entered a $7 million settlement with the state as part of the same investigation.

August 29, 2007