Press Release: Antitrust: Commission adopts new Block Exemption Regulation for insurance sector

The European Commission adopted on 24 March 2010 a new Regulation that block exempts certain types of agreements in the insurance sector from the EU's general prohibition of practices restrictive of competition.

The new Block Exemption Regulation (BER), which will come into force on 1 April 2010, renews two of the four categories of agreements currently exempted, namely joint compilations, tables and studies, and co(re)insurance pools, with some amendments. Certain information exchange can be justified in order to allow insurers to accurately assess risks. Pooling is also important in order to ensure that all risks can be covered. These two types of agreements justify a block exemption. Other types of cooperation may also be legal but it will be for insurers to self-assess that they comply with the general competition rules.