https://www.insurerbrain.com/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Definition%3AInsurance_Block_Exemption_Regulation 2026-06-17T01:31:15Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.43.8 https://www.insurerbrain.com/w/index.php?title=Definition:Insurance_Block_Exemption_Regulation&diff=20769&oldid=prev 2026-03-18T03:27:13Z

<p>Bot: Creating new article from JSON</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>📜 &#039;&#039;&#039;Insurance Block Exemption Regulation&#039;&#039;&#039; is a European Union competition-law instrument that permits certain categories of cooperation among [[Definition:Insurance carrier | insurers]] — specifically joint compilations of statistical data and the operation of co-insurance and co-reinsurance [[Definition:Insurance pool | pools]] — that would otherwise risk violating Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which prohibits anti-competitive agreements. First introduced in the 1990s and renewed in successive iterations, the regulation recognized that the insurance industry depends on broad data sharing to [[Definition:Underwriting | underwrite]] and [[Definition:Insurance pricing | price]] risks accurately, and that certain pooling arrangements make otherwise uninsurable risks — such as nuclear liability or terrorism — available to the market. The most recent version, Commission Regulation (EU) No 267/2010, expired on March 31, 2017, and the European Commission chose not to renew it, concluding that the general competition rules and existing horizontal [[Definition:Block exemption regulation | block exemption regulations]] provided sufficient legal certainty for the industry.<br /> <br /> ⚙️ Under the regulation&#039;s framework, insurers could exchange certain types of aggregated [[Definition:Loss data | loss]] and risk data — including joint calculations of average [[Definition:Claims cost | claims costs]], [[Definition:Frequency | frequency]] tables, and mortality or morbidity studies — provided the information was made available on reasonable, affordable, and non-discriminatory terms and did not identify individual [[Definition:Policyholder | policyholders]] or carriers. This safe harbor was particularly valuable for smaller insurers and new market entrants that lacked proprietary actuarial databases of sufficient depth. The regulation also exempted co-insurance and co-reinsurance pools for non-standard or novel risks, subject to market-share thresholds: pools covering risks that were not otherwise commercially insurable received wider latitude, while those writing more conventional business had to stay below specified market-share ceilings. Participating carriers could agree on common coverage terms, [[Definition:Insurance premium | premium]] rates, and [[Definition:Claims handling | claims-handling]] procedures within the pool, which would normally constitute hardcore [[Definition:Price-fixing | price-fixing]] or market allocation under general competition law.<br /> <br /> ⚖️ The expiry of the regulation did not make insurer cooperation illegal — it simply removed the automatic presumption of compliance that the block exemption conferred. Insurers and their [[Definition:Trade association | trade associations]], such as [[Definition:Insurance Europe | Insurance Europe]], must now self-assess whether their data-sharing or pooling arrangements satisfy the conditions for individual exemption under Article 101(3), which requires demonstrating that the arrangement produces efficiencies, benefits consumers, and does not eliminate competition. In practice, many joint data initiatives — including those run by national actuarial associations — have continued with adjusted governance and compliance protocols. The episode carries broader lessons beyond Europe: in any jurisdiction where antitrust or competition authorities scrutinize collective insurance practices — the United States&#039; [[Definition:McCarran-Ferguson Act | McCarran-Ferguson Act]] provides a different but related framework — the tension between the industry&#039;s need for shared data and regulators&#039; duty to prevent collusion remains a live and strategically important issue.<br /> <br /> &#039;&#039;&#039;Related concepts:&#039;&#039;&#039;<br /> {{Div col|colwidth=20em}}<br /> * [[Definition:Insurance pool]]<br /> * [[Definition:Co-insurance]]<br /> * [[Definition:Co-reinsurance]]<br /> * [[Definition:Insurance Europe]]<br /> * [[Definition:McCarran-Ferguson Act]]<br /> * [[Definition:Competition law in insurance]]<br /> {{Div col end}}</div>

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