INSURANCE ADJUSTERS' FEE SCALE
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
ANIA FINED TWO MILLION EUROS FOR ANTI-COMPETITIVE ARRANGEMENT
Uniform criteria encouraged in determining the costs of property damage.
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 30 November 2005, decided that ANIA, the Associazione Nazionale delle Imprese Assicurative (National Association of Insurance Companies), created an anti-competitive arrangement by encouraging the use of uniform cost parameters in determining payments for property damage. The two-million euro fine imposed takes into account the seriousness and duration of the breach. ANIA must also immediately cease any coordination activity on behalf of its member companies and adopt suitable measures in this regard which must be reported to the Authority within 90 days from notice of the ruling.
During the course of the same inquiry, the Authority also established that ANIA and the insurance adjusters' associations, by way of an agreement on scales of fees, had set up an anti-competitive arrangement in violation of Article 81 of the EC Treaty. For this second breach, fines amount to 200,000 euros for ANIA, 1,000 euros each for AICIS (Associazione Italiana Consulenti Infortunistica Stradale) and SNAPIS (Sindacato Nazionale Autonomo Periti Infortunistica Stradale), and 800 euros for CNPI (Consiglio Nazionale Periti Industriali). No fines were imposed, instead, on SNAPI (Sindacato Nazionale Autonomo Periti Industriali), SNAPIA (Sindacato Nazionale Periti Industriali Assicurativi) or UIPA (Unione Italiana Periti Assicurativi): even though they took part in the arrangement, these associations have had no substantial receipts from members in recent years upon which to calculate a fine.
The inquiry was set up by the Competition Authority on 15 July 2004 to evaluate the degree of anti-competitiveness of the agreement stipulated in 2003 between ANIA and Italy's most representative insurance adjusters associations, which defined both the fees to be paid to insurance adjusters by the Companies and the methods and criteria for assessing damage. Specifically, the agreement foresaw the use of a standard form provided by ANIA and the application of the cost parameters defined in an agreement between ANIA and smash repairers, such as the price of original replacement parts (if used), the time to repair and replace vehicles, and the cost of labour.
Thus, the inquiry revealed two different and separate anti-competitive arrangements which were interlinked. The first was that dealing with insurance adjusters' fees and the second was that covering methods and criteria for determining property damage.
Rome, 12 December 2005