One of the named plaintiffs, Paul Cooley, purchased a motorcycle in May 2002. On May 25, Progressive allegedly checked his Experian credit report as a part of determining its insurance quote to Mr. Cooley. The action alleges that Mr. Cooley's driving record is good, so that there is no reason that he should not receive Progressive's best rate--but the quote he received was not the best that Progressive had to offer. Progressive allegedly determines what insurance rates customers will pay by using a computer program that considers credit scores in its formulation of insurance quotes.

The action alleges that a small percentage of policyholders are offered "ultra preferred" rates based on a combination of their driving records and their credit scores. If one or the other of those is not up to par, however, the customer is offered a less-than-ideal quote. The action does not allege that Progressive's use of credit reports is against the law--the problem arises from the allegation that the company does not tell customers that they are being adversely affected by its use of their credit scores. Such a failure by Progressive Insurance to notify customers of this adverse action is allegedly prohibited under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Credit reporting Act.

The actions have been consolidated into a multidistrict action named In re The Progressive Insurance Corporation Underwriting & Rating Practices Litigation, 1:03cv1519. The individual actions are Paul K. Cooley v. Progressive Insurance Company (Western District of Louisiana, 5:02-2384); Cathryn Smith v. Progressive Corporation (Northern District of Florida, 1:00-210); Sharele Dikeman v. Progressive Corporation, (District of Oregon, 3:01-1465); and Timothy James Carlson v. Progressive Insurance Company (Northern District of Texas, 3:02-2552).