WASHINGTON, May 4, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Justice has weighed into a California antitrust lawsuit accusing major insurers of conspiring to cancel homeowners’ fire insurance policies before the devastating 2025 Southern California wildfires.
The Justice Department said it filed a statement of interest in Ferrier v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, a case pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court brought by 60 homeowners who lost homes in the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires.
The plaintiffs allege that 16 insurance companies jointly coordinated to terminate homeowners’ fire insurance coverage in the years leading up to the fires, forcing policyholders into California’s state-run insurance program, which they claim provided weaker coverage and left them with significantly higher rebuilding costs.
The filing by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division argues that the insurers should not be shielded from the claims under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, a legal principle protecting petitioning activity directed at government agencies from antitrust liability.
According to the department, the alleged group boycott of policyholders was “separate and distinct” from any lobbying or regulatory advocacy conducted by insurers and therefore should not automatically receive immunity.
“Nearly 16 months after the Eaton and Palisades Fires, the homeowners who lost everything are still trying to rebuild their lives,” said Charlie Beller, deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division. “The DOJ Antitrust Division is monitoring insurer conduct across the country to ensure that an improper understanding of federal law does not preclude state or federal antitrust claims.”
The Justice Department also said the McCarran-Ferguson Act — which limits some federal antitrust actions involving insurance conduct regulated by states — does not necessarily bar the type of group boycott claims alleged in the lawsuit.
The case is one of several legal and political disputes emerging from California’s insurance crisis, as rising wildfire risks and mounting claims costs have led insurers to scale back coverage in parts of the state.
