Information
Public consultations
Review of the competition rules applicable to agreements in the insurance sector
Policy field
Competition (antitrust)
Target group
The business community and their representatives as well as other organisations including industry associations and consumer interest associations, who have direct experience with the current regime for the assessment of agreements in the insurance sector.
Period of consultation
From 05.10.2009 to 30.11.2009 - now closed
Objective of the consultation
The current insurance Block Exemption Regulation (BER) expires on 31 March 2010. When the current Regulation was adopted six years ago, the aim was to considerably reduce the regulatory burden on the Commission prior to Modernisation of the EU competition rules. This original objective of the BER is no longer relevant since the notification system no longer exists as a result of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2003.
In order to prepare the required report (the Report) to the European Parliament and Council on the current BER's functioning the Commission undertook a full consultation of interested parties which began in November 2007. The replies and evidence were analysed in the Report, which was adopted and published (together with an accompanying Working Document)  on 24 March 2009. This Report also contained initial proposals for amendment of the BER. A Public Event was then held on 2 June 2009 to allow the industry and stakeholders a further opportunity to make representations prior to the Commission's decision on the future of the BER.
The current BER applies Article 81(3) of the EC Treaty (the Treaty) to four categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices in the insurance sector namely those in relation to (i) joint calculations, tables and studies; (ii) standard policy conditions (SPCs); (iii) the common coverage of certain types of risks (pools); and (iv) security devices.
Given that the BER is an exceptional legal instrument, as a sector specific competition regulation, when considering the issue of whether to renew, it was necessary for the Commission to determine whether the business risks or other issues make this sector special and different to other sectors that operate without a BER such that special rules are justified. Therefore and in particular, since the original objective of the BER is no longer relevant, the Commission undertook a first principles analysis, which involved answering three questions:
- (i) is the insurance sector special so as to give rise to an enhanced need for cooperation in comparison with other sectors;
- (ii) if so whether this enhanced need for cooperation requires a legal instrument such as for example, the BER to protect or facilitate it; and
- (iii) if so, whether the current BER is the most appropriate legal instrument to do so (or whether partial renewal, amended renewal, or Guidelines would be more appropriate).
The Commission's conclusions on the basis of the evidence it found, are that it is not appropriate to renew two of the four exemptions in the current BER, i.e. the exemptions for SPCs and security devices. The Commission considers that both SPCs and agreements on security devices are not specific to the insurance sector and as such do not require a sector-specific BER. However, the Commission is addressing both SPCs and security devices in the general standardisation chapter in its Horizontal Guidelines which are currently being revised.
The draft new Insurance BER therefore exempts agreements on joint compilations, tables and studies as well as agreements on pools.
While the consultation obviously covered all of the issues dealt with by the draft BER, the Commission sought in particular comments on the expanded definition of new risks, the anticipated functioning of the exemption for pools and the public security exception for access to results of information exchanged.
Consultation documents
Draft Commission Regulation on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices in the insurance sector
bg cs da de el en es et fi fr hu it lt lv mt nl pl pt ro sk sl sv
Press release IP/09/1413: Antitrust: public consultation on revised draft Block Exemption Regulation for insurance sector
Contributions received
REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS
ABI en
Ania en
Assuralia en
BIPAR en
CEA en
Certalarm en
GDV - German Insurance Association en
Norton Rose en
UNREGISTERED ORGANISATIONS
Consumer organisations
Fin-Use en
Insurance Associations
ABAM / BVT en
CAP - Czech Insurance Association en
DVS - Deutscher Versicherungs-Schutzverband en
FFSA - Fédération Française des Sociétés d'Assurances fr
VVO - Austrian Insurance Association en
VVV - Dutch Association of Insurers en
Other entities
American Bar Association en
Federation of Finnish Financial Services en
Ferma en
International Union of Marine Insurance en
Taylor Wessing en
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