Federal Judge Dismisses Price-Fixing Lawsuit Against 40 Elite Universities

A federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit accusing the College Board and 40 elite universities, including Brown, Duke, and Penn, of conspiring to fix tuition prices by requiring financial aid applicants to submit financial information from noncustodial parents. Plaintiffs alleged this practice inflated tuition costs for students with divorced or separated parents by limiting competition among schools in offering financial aid. However, Judge Sara Ellis ruled that the plaintiffs failed to provide plausible evidence of an agreement or conspiracy among the universities, noting there was no indication that schools shared internal financial aid decision-making processes or agreed on a uniform formula for aid calculations. The lawsuit, filed in October 2024, challenged the use of the College Scholarship Service Profile which mandates reporting both parents' financial data regardless of their support plans. While the court acknowledged that the policy may increase tuition costs, it found no proof of antitrust violations under the Sherman Act. Universities have maintained that financial aid decisions are made independently, and some have since adjusted their financial aid processes to reduce the burden on applicants with noncustodial parents.