If it plausibly looks like a solicitation (or commission), quacks like a solicitation (or commission), and walks like a solicitation (or commission), then, by God, it's a solicitation (or commission).
Or at least that's true at the 12(b)(6) stage of the game.
So holds the Ninth Circuit. In a huge putative class action in which plaintiffs allege that AARP, the nation's largest (by far) Medigap insurance "provider," actually "solicits" or receives a "commission" (of 4.95%) on the policies it markets. Notwithstanding not being licensed to do so.
There are still several hoops the lawsuit has to jump through. The filed rate doctrine, summary judgment, etc.
But the suit was dead as of yesterday. As of today, it lives.
