by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
A judge has granted JG Wentworth's motion to dismiss the anti-trust complaint of Novation Ventures, LLC for the second time, with leave to amend. This means that Novation Ventures LLC can file another amended complaint to see if that gains any traction with Judge Beverly Reid O'Connell. NOVATION VENTURES, LLC V. THE J.G. WENTWORTH COMPANY, LLC ET AL United States District Court for Central California 2:15-cv-00954-BRO-PJW
Novation Ventures claimed that Defendants’ “maintenance of three brands, each pretending to Compete with the other, harms both consumers and genuine competitors such as Novation.” (FAC ¶ 51.) Plaintiff alleged that Defendants coordinate their Google AdWords “pay-per-click” bidding and budgets, giving Defendants the ability to bid high prices to “consistently grab two and often three of the top three search listing results on many of the keywords used by consumers searching for structured settlement buyers.” ) This behavior, according to Plaintiff, “crowds out competitors and/or drives up the cost of being in second or third position in any given search ranking, making it more difficult and expensive for Novation to be found by potential customers looking for genuinely competing offers.
Plaintiff also claimed that the fact that Defendants list themselves separately in Google’s paid search results on the same keywords deceives consumers. (FAC ¶ 52.) According to Plaintiff, Defendants know that most sellers who have invested time obtaining bids from two companies will not solicit a third bid. (FAC ¶ 38.) Defendants promote a fleet of fake or “decoy” brands
to decrease the likelihood that its prospective customers will find a genuinely competing bid. (Id.) This allows Defendants to bid lower prices for structured settlement payment rights than they would have to in a genuinely competitive market. (FAC ¶ 46–48.)
JG Wentworth dominates the structured settlement secondary market through its primary brands JG Wentworth and Peachtree Settlement Funding.