EU antitrust enforcers accept Irish insurers group's concessions

In 2021, the European Commission charged Insurance Ireland with restricting competition in the Irish motor vehicle insurance market.

Commitments made by Insurance Ireland have been made binding by the European Commission under EU anti-trust legislation.

Insurance Ireland has committed to allowing access to its data-sharing system Insurance Link in a fair, transparent, objective and non-discriminatory basis.

The insurance association will have to allow access to its Insurance Link information exchange system to non-members.

In 2021, the European Commission charged Insurance Ireland with restricting competition in the Irish motor vehicle insurance market due to evidence that they had arbitrarily delayed or in practice denied access of non-members to its data-sharing system. 

Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, 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," she added.

#EUAntitrust Commission 🇪🇺 accepts commitments by Insurance Ireland 🇮🇪 to ensure access to its data sharing platform ⬇️https://t.co/tlgsHRS9Ci pic.twitter.com/BngGmbz4hU

— EU Competition 🇪🇺 (@EU_Competition) June 30, 2022

The commitments made by Insurance Ireland will be enforced for 10 years. 

Insurance Ireland covers approximately 90% of the car insurance market in Ireland.

In July 2017, the European Commission carried out unannounced inspections in Ireland looking at the motor insurance market.

Following the inspections, in May 2019, the Commission began a formal investigation into the conduct of Insurance Ireland to establish if it had breached EU competition rules.

If Insurance Ireland were to breach the commitments, the Commission could impose a fine of up to 10% of the association's worldwide turnover or of the sum of the turnover of its members active on the relevant market, without having to prove an infringement of EU antitrust rules.

In a statement, Insurance Ireland said they welcomed the Commission's decisions and said the commitments they have made was not an acknowledgement that they had infringed competition law.

• Additional reporting from Reuters