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ARTICLE · 14 APRIL 2010

Warning over EU competition rules

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Insurance executives have been warned that they inadvertently face falling foul of EU competition laws by being present at meetings where ‘commercially sensitive’ information is exchanged between competitors.

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
Anthony Woolich
Anthony Woolich

Originally published in the Insurance Day, March 2010.

Insurance executives have been warned that they inadvertently face falling foul of EU competition laws by being present at meetings where 'commercially sensitive' information is exchanged between competitors.

According to Anthony Woolich, competition partner at law firm Holman Fenwick Willan, executives, and in particular those who have to deal with competitors in their roles within industry associations, will need to be increasingly aware of what issues were likely to come up in meetings beforehand when the European Commission's new antitrust block exemption rules for the insurance sector come into force on Thursday.

Even executives who did not participate in commercially sensitive discussions with competitors, but were present in the same room when they took place could constitute an infringement in competition laws, Woolich added.

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