LONDON—Aon Consulting has sued Marsh Inc. and its subsidiary, Marsh & McLennan Agency, for allegedly gaining unauthorized access to Aon data.
The lawsuit charges Marsh and Marsh & McLennan with misappropriation of trade secrets and deceptive trade practices. Aon alleges that Marsh and Marsh & McLennan obtained Aon survey data and used it in their own business.
Aon offers compensation data surveys to its customers, according to the lawsuit. Access to the data, which comes from about 3,000 different organizations, is restricted. To gain access, participating organizations agree to conditions on how the survey reports can be used. Access is gained through a secure website, using Aon-provided login credentials.
Marsh and Marsh & McLennan Agency, meanwhile, offer compensation consulting services through their San Diego-based business unit, Barney & Barney Insurance Services. Aon claims that the Marsh companies gained access to its restricted data by using a participating organization’s login credentials, then used the information to in their own compensation consulting services.
Aon claimed in the lawsuit that it “has suffered irreparable injury” because of the Marsh companies’ actions. Aon is seeking damages, attorneys’ fees and court costs, and a permanent injunction.
Last year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom also investigated Marsh for due to allegations that the company was sharing competitively sensitive information regarding their aviation insurance accounts.
In fact, one of the Philippines’ top non-life insurance companies filed a complaint against Marsh in the UK High Court in London, for disclosing highly confidential and proprietary aviation insurance information to the chief executive of a local airline.
Although Marsh reportedly settled this case out of the UK High Court, the FCA is still pursuing administrative violations of insurance industry rules against the broker.