Authority starts formal investigation on insurance market

"We have noted that the insurance market in Albania is controlled by written agreements between companies, permanent coordination and joint price decisions", the Authority announced officially today.

Eight companies have signed a public agreement in May 2005 regarding unification of their points of sell for cross-border car policy with a fixed price. The agreement was made under the claim that this regulation would allow them to survive, and to earn enough to pay of claims from customers.

The agreement was approved by the Ministry of Finance of Albania, who is the Regulatory Authority for the insurance market. In December 2005, the Competition Authority considered the agreement a violation under competition law and principles and asked the Minister of Finance to annul the agreement, but the ministry ignored the recommendation.

At this time, Albanian insurers have signed similar agreement for other products, but not so openly.

The Albanian insurance market totaled at USD 40 million in 2005, with USD 12 million in paid claims.

Competition Authority of Albania was created in 2004, and has started official investigations over the insurance market and the mobile telecommunications. The authority had fined for the first and last time Albanian Mobile Telecommunication last year for non-collaborative conduct in the investigation over the mobile market.

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Posted by on Nov 14 2006. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry