The System Of Antitrust Exemption In The Insurance Industry

Antitrust law should be applied to all economic activities.However,due to the complexity of real economic behaviors,the pressure of interest groups,social public interests and other reasons,the antitrust law should be applied with limitations in some economic activities.As an important complement of antitrust law,the exemption system is of great significance to improve the competition law and realize its multi-value.The insurance industry is a special business which operates risk.Based on the special nature of the insurance industry activities,many countries prefer to give the insurance industry a certain degree of exemption and even to exclude the application of antitrust law in the field of insurance industry.However,for the insurance industry,the Chinese Antitrust Law does not form a special exemption.In fact,since the implementation of the Chinese Antitrust Law,the questions regarding how the antitrust law shall be applied in the insurance industry and whether the insurance industry should be granted exemption are always in disputes.In the first part of this paper,the cause of the exemption problem in the insurance industry and the present research achievements will be reviewed,and the research methods and innovations of this paper will be briefly described.Then the second part of this paper will try to figure out the concept of exemption under the framework of the current Chinese antitrust law.The third part will analyze the theoretical basis of the exemption in the insurance industry,especially from the view of the particularity of the insurance business.The fourth part of this paper will introduce the German and the EU competition laws and regulations regarding the exemption of insurance industry,in order to present their exemption systems from the perspective of comparative law and get the inspiration for the improvement of corresponding exemption system in China.The regulations regarding the exemption in the insurance industry and the current problems will be discussed in the fifth part,especially the case about the administrative punishment to insurance association and companies in Zhejiang.This part will try to discuss the common behaviors in the insurance industry which could be exempted in the antitrust law.The last part of this article will try to raise suggestions and advices to improve the current exemption system combined with actual situation in China and the experience from the Germany and EU exemption system.