On Friday 18 June, the European Commission informed Insurance Ireland, an association of Irish insurers, of its preliminary view that it had breached EU competition rules by restricting competition in the Irish motor vehicle insurance market.
The Commission takes issue with certain conditions of access to the Insurance Link platform, a data sharing system operated by Insurance Ireland. It considers that Insurance Ireland has arbitrarily delayed or de facto denied system access for companies with a legitimate interest in being able to access it, and that barriers remain which could affect companies seeking to enter the Irish motor vehicle insurance market.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of Competition Policy, said: “We have concerns that certain insurers and their agents were put at a competitive disadvantage because Insurance Ireland denied or delayed access to its data sharing system, compiling valuable information on insurance claims.”
The Commission’s preliminary findings show that Insurance Ireland has arbitrarily delayed or de facto denied certain insurers and their agents access to Insurance Link. Since at least 2009 and until today, access has been linked to membership of the association. Thus, applicants have to first be eligible for membership, meet membership criteria and go through an unpredictable application process. For several years, certain types of insurers and their agents were not eligible for membership and were therefore de facto denied access. For some companies, the compulsory membership criteria have delayed access to the system by several years.
The Commission considers that the lack of access to Insurance Link has the effect of putting companies at a competitive disadvantage compared to companies that do have access to the database, with negative effects on costs, service quality and prices. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)