On December 13, 2016, the European Commission announced in a press release that Regulation 267/2010, the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation ("IBER"), will not be prevented from expiring on March 31, 2017. The IBER entered into force on April 1, 2010 and provides a block exemption for agreements relating to joint compilations, tables and studies. This enables the exchange of statistical information (calculations, tables and studies), subject to the specified conditions, and common coverage of certain types of risks (co-(re)insurance pools), subject to market share thresholds and other specified conditions.
In March 2016, the Commission published a report and document presenting the preliminary findings and conclusions of its review of the IBER, which began in 2014. The Commission's provisional conclusion with regard to joint compilations, tables and studies was that the functioning of the insurance industry no longer appears to require a special instrument like a block exemption regulation. As regards co-(re)insurance pools, the Commission considered the IBER to be of limited use and relevance.
The Commission has now confirmed the block exemption is no longer warranted because the Commission's 2011 Guidelines on horizontal cooperation (OJ 2011 C11/1) already provides guidance on how to assess the conformity of joint compilations, tables and studies with EU antitrust rules. However, the expiry of the IBER does not mean that these forms of cooperation become unlawful under Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Rather, insurers, as with all other companies doing business in the EU, will need to assess their cooperation in the market context to see whether it is in line with EU competition rules.
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