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ARTICLE · 29 MARCH 2010

New Block Exemption Regulation for the Insurance Sector

SJ Berwin LLP
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The European Commission (the "Commission") has this week adopted a new Block Exemption Regulation ("BER") which will benefit certain agreements in the insurance sector.

European UnionAntitrust/Competition Law
SJ Berwin'S EU & Competition Team
SJ Berwin'S EU & Competition Team

The European Commission (the "Commission") has this week adopted a new Block Exemption Regulation ("BER") which will benefit certain agreements in the insurance sector.  The new BER will come into force on 1 April and will continue in force for 7 years.  Agreements that fall under the scope of the new BER will be automatically exempt from the prohibition on anti-competitive agreements under Article 101(1) TFEU.

The new BER replaces the existing insurance sector BER (which expires on 31 March) and maintains protection for two of the four categories of agreements currently exempted, namely:

  1. cooperation in relation to the joint exchange of statistical information for compilations, tables and studies (for example to facilitate the rating or cost of covering certain risk), and

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