The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the functioning of the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (BER).

The BER exempts from the Commission's ban on restrictive business practices (Article 81) certain co-operation agreements between insurance companies including the establishment of non-binding standard policy conditions, the exchange of statistical information for the calculation of risks and the creation of insurance pools.

The Consultation Paper sets out the comments which the Commission received on the BER during its recent Sector Inquiry into Business Insurance and from a recent consultation of national competition authorities, as well as the Commission's current considerations and case experience. It also sets out a number of questions generally and in relation to each exemption under the BER.

Some areas of specific interest to the Commission are:

• Whether the BER is being used, where and why.
• Whether the business risks or other issues in this sector make it special and different to other sectors (which operate without a BER) and,
• Whether the BER gives rise to any anti-competitive effects which harm consumers such as higher prices or reduced supply of certain insurance products.

Another area which will be examined is whether operation of the insurance sector without a BER would lead to a heavier burden on supervisory authorities and competition law enforcement.

The results will help the Commission decide whether or not to renew the BER on its expiry in March 2010. Comments are invited by 17 July 2008, after which the Commission will draft a report and conduct an impact assessment. If the Commission decides to renew or revise the BER, the Commission will consult on a draft. If no further BER is to be enacted, the Commission will publish a Communication to that effect in 2009.