The European Commission has launched consultation on whether Europe's insurance industry should remain exempt from some antitrust rules
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the functioning of the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (BER).
The results will help the Commission decide whether or not to renew the BER on its expiry in March 2010.
The BER exempts from the Commission's ban on restrictive business practices (Article 81) certain co-operation agreements between insurance companies including the exchange of statistical information for the calculation of risks and the creation of insurance pools.
“We need to investigate how the insurance block exemption is working in practice and whether there are sufficient grounds to renew it. Sector specific competition regulations are exceptional legal instruments.
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes
The purpose of the consultation is to determine how the BER is being used and its impact on the various insurance markets in the EU.
Comments are invited by 17 July 2008, after which the Commission will draft a report and conduct an impact assessment.
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: ‘We need to investigate how the insurance block exemption is working in practice and whether there are sufficient grounds to renew it. Sector specific competition regulations are exceptional legal instruments. If there are to be special rules for a particular sector, I need to be convinced that they are justified in terms of bringing real benefits to competition and to consumers.’
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