April 13, 2008

The implacable in pursuit of the unknowable? In Connecticut, Virginia and Nevada, legislation provides that state legal officers may sue antitrust offenders for the notional general damage done to the states' economies by the economic offenses charged. The Connecticut Supreme Court on that basis has just green-lighted AG Richard Blumenthal's legal action against insurance broker Marsh & McLennan, rejecting Marsh's argument that the economic damage theory inherently involves double-counting of damages already included in private parties' right to sue. (Legal NewsLine; opinion, PDF).

P.S. Correspondent Skip Oliva of the Voluntary Trade Council writes, "Of course, no state AG would ever consider the possibility that antitrust itself does far more damage to the economy by removing private capital from the market."