Insurers agree to limit amount of data exchanged within industry
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Seven insurance companies and two IT software and service providers have provisionally agreed to limit the data they exchange between them after the Office of Fair Trading raised concerns over competition law.
Insurers Aviva, AXA, Liverpool Victoria, RBS Insurance, Royal Sun Alliance and Zurich and IT companies Experian and SSP have offered formal commitments to the OFT.
This follows an OFT investigation which identified an increased risk of price co-ordination among motor insurers using a specialist market analysis tool by Experian called Whatif? Private Motor.
The tool allowed insurers to access the pricing information they provided to brokers as well as pricing information supplied by competing insurers.
The OFT warned the firms that the data exchanged through this tool raised competition law concerns that it was not genuinely public information. The consumer and competition authority said while it would, in theory, be possible to replicate the information by obtaining individual quotes from insurers, this would be almost impossible in practice.
Clive Maxwell (left), the executive director at the OFT, said: "Active competition between firms drives better value for consumers, and anything that potentially dampens that is a cause for concern. The OFT treats possible breaches of competition law seriously, but we believe that formal commitments in this case would be a proportionate way of resolving concerns."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments