In Lynn Barton et al. v. Fidelity National Financial Inc. et al., the Northern District of California Judge Jeffrey S. White has dismissed without prejudice, the consolidated class action alleging price-fixing in the California title insurance industry. Guided by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and rejecting plaintiffs’ argument that Twombly’s plausibility standard is inapplicable because the allegations regarding the rate-setting organizations amount to a direct agreement to fix prices, Judge White held that plaintiffs’ allegations that the title insurance companies may have set rates collectively with legitimate rate setting organizations, are not enough to automatically amount to a price-fixing conspiracy. According to the opinion, “[p]articipation in the rate setting organizations may have provided defendants the opportunity to discuss setting rates in California, but opportunity, without more, is not a plausible basis to suggest a conspiracy.”