The Competition Council on December 4 fined nine Romanian insurers and the association of local insurers (UNSAR) with total fines of RON 246.7 million (some EUR 53 million) for breaching national and European competition rules by coordinating market behavior in order to increase the price of the mandatory third-party car insurance (RCA).

The nine insurers are Allianz-Tiriac, Astra, Omniasig, Groupama, Generali, Carpatica Asig, Uniqa, Euroins and Asirom. Among the nine, Euroins has cooperated with the Competition Council (which helped the investigators demonstrate the deeds), the Competition Council informed.

The firms exchanged information regarding their pricing policies, including with the help of UNSAR, during the period between October 2012 and November 2016, the Competition Council found.

UNSAR, as well as part of the insurers already rejected the findings of the Competition Council and announced that they contemplate (or have already taken a decision toward) challenging the fine in court, according to local G4media.ro.

editor@romania-insider.com

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