Brussels, 05/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced on Monday 5 October that it was opening a consultation exercise on block exemption in the insurance sector. The current exemption expires on 31 March 2010. According to a report published in March, the Commission is considering reducing the scope of the exemption for the duration of the new regulation, which will apply until 2015 (see EUROPE 9987). In a press release published on Monday, the says that “the revised draft Block Exemption Regulation proposes to renew two of the four categories of agreements currently exempted by the Block Exemption Regulation, namely information exchange and insurance pools, with certain amendments”.
It follows then that two other types of cooperation, currently covered by the Block Exemption Regulation (Commission regulation N° 358/2003), will no longer be protected under the new system: agreements on the establishment of non-binding standard policy conditions, and agreements on security devices. These will, therefore, be regulated directly by provisions in the EC Treaty which govern all commercial activity (for example, Article 81 on agreements and concerted practices). The Commission justifies this amendment on the grounds that “neither agreements on standard policy conditions nor agreements on security devices appear to be specific to the insurance sector”; in other words, these activities present no need that is peculiar to the sector and which merit exemption from normal Community law. According to its press release, the Commission followed “extensive consultation of stakeholders over a period of eighteen months”. Insurers, however, are less than keen on this development. “We are very disappointed that the Commission does not intend to renew the block exemption” for these two activities, said William Vidonja, Head of Single Market and Social Affairs at the CEA. He said that “normal” regulation of these practices would not suffice, given the differences in application among member states. The Commission invites interested third parties to comment by 30 November 2009.
The draft revised Block Exemption Regulation is available at: http: //ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/financial_services/insurance.html (C.D./transl.rt)