Authority starts formal investigation on insurance market

TIRANA, Nov. 14 – A formal investigation will be conducted to assess the potential cartel organization of Albanian insurance providers. The news was communicated on Monday by the Competition Authority of Albania which has started to examine various products in the insurance market of Albania. Several reports to this authority have raised the possibility that insurance companies had created illegal arrangements to set fixed prices for services like third-party liability car insurance, international car insurance and border police car insurance. “We have noted that the insurance market in Albania is controlled by written agreements between companies, permanent coordination and joint price decisions”, the Authority announced in its statement. One of the agreements was legal and it was approved by the Ministry of Finance of Albania. It was signed in May 2005 by eight companies to coordinate their points of sale for cross-border car policy with a fixed price. The justification provided was that this regulation would allow them to survive. In December of the same year, the Competition Authority asked the Minister of Finance to annul the agreement because it was considered a violation under competition law and principles. The ministry ignored the recommendation. The Albanian insurance market registered $12 million of paid claims this year. The Competition Authority of Albania was created in 2004. Last year it fined Albanian Mobile Telecommunication, for non-collaborative conduct in the investigation over the mobile market. Currently it is holding official investigations over the insurance market and the mobile telecommunications.