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Antitrust: Commission accepts commitments by Insurance Ireland to ensure access to its data sharing platform

The European Commission has made commitments offered by Insurance Ireland, an association of Irish insurers, legally binding under EU antitrust rules. Insurance Ireland must ensure fair and non-discriminatory access to its Insurance Link information exchange system, which contains important data for companies offering motor vehicle insurance services in Ireland.

Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, yesterday said:

“Insurance Ireland has offered commitments which will ensure access to its data sharing system on a fair, transparent, objective and non-discriminatory basis. Today, the Commission has made this binding. The commitments will restore the level playing field in the Irish motor insurance market and ease the entry of new players. As a result, consumers may benefit from a larger choice of suppliers. This is a good result since today's economy increasingly relies on data sharing and access to data has become key in many markets.”

The Commission's concerns

In the Statement of Objections issued in June 2021, the Commission outlined its preliminary view that Insurance Ireland arbitrarily delayed or in practice denied access of non-members to its Insurance Link information exchange system, thereby restricting competition in the Irish motor vehicle insurance market.

Insurance Link's data allows insurers to better assess customers' risk profiles and consequently to price insurance policies for motor vehicles. By restricting access to its platform, Insurance Ireland placed certain companies at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis its members who had access to the platform. This acted as a barrier to entry, particularly for insurers based in other Member States, ultimately reducing the possibility of more competitive prices and choice of suppliers for consumers seeking motor vehicle insurance in Ireland.

The commitments

To address the Commission's concerns, Insurance Ireland offered certain commitments. Between 4 March and 4 April 2022, the Commission market tested those commitments and consulted interested third parties to ascertain that they would remove the competition concerns. In light of the outcome of this market test, Insurance Ireland made several amendments to the initially proposed commitments. The amendments further specify the profile and role of the operationally independent Application Officer that will handle access requests, and introduce further clarifications as regards the implementation and the monitoring of the commitments.

The Commission found that Insurance Ireland's final commitments will ensure market participants' access to the Insurance Link platform, and decided to make them legally binding on Insurance Ireland. More specifically, Insurance Ireland has committed:

  • To make the access to the Insurance Link information exchange system independent from membership to Insurance Ireland.
  • To change the access criteria to Insurance Link and make them fair, objective, transparent and non-discriminatory and to apply them uniformly to all applicants, from Ireland and other Member States.
  • To establish a new Insurance Link application procedure with a defined timeline that will be handled by an operationally independent Application Officer, who is of a sufficient level of seniority and has experience in the insurance sector acquired in a professional capacity. Applicants who have been refused access will be able to appeal to the Oversight Committee, an independent appeal body.
  • To establish a cost and usage based fee model and to ensure that a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory fee will be charged to Insurance Link users.
  • To ensure that the criteria for becoming member of the Insurance Ireland association will be fair, objective, transparent and non-discriminatory.

The final commitments will remain in force for 10 years. Under supervision of the Commission, a trustee will be in charge of monitoring the implementation and compliance with the commitments.

Click here for the full press release

 

Original article link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_4242

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