Taylor Wessing takes part in the public consultation launched by the European Commission on the new block exemption regulation for the insurance sector

Lawyers Dr. Philipp von Hülsen, M. Jur (Oxon.)

The block exemption regulation for the insurance sector (BER) contains important guidelines for the compatibility with the EU competition rules of certain forms of cooperation between insurers, such as the common coverage of risks (pools) or joint statistics and studies.

The BER will expire at the end of March 2010. The European Commission (Commission) has published for consultation a first draft of the new insurance block exemption regulation, intended to become effective on 1 April 2010. Taylor Wessing has submitted its views on the draft to the Commission. With a view to the key importance of the BER for the entire insurance industry, Taylor Wessing welcomes the Commission's intention to renew the BER and to preserve legal certainty for insurers and insurance customers.

Taylor Wessing also commends the Commission for its intention to facilitate a common coverage of risks whose nature has changed materially. The submission is more critical with respect to the stricter approach to the membership of larger insurers in pools proposed in the draft. The submission also advocates against including in the new BER a right of consumer organisations for access to internal and confidential statistics and calculations of insurers, as proposed by the Commission. 

A copy of Taylor Wessing's submission can be found here: