Research On Antitrust Exemption System Of Insurance Industry

The insurance industry as a business risk industry is closely linked with economic security and social security,and a certain degree of incorporation between insurers is conducive to the dispersion of underwriting risks and better protection of the interests of policyholders.On the contrary,excessive competition between insurers may undermine social and economic security and stability.The industry characteristics of the insurance industry determine that the relationship between competition and cooperation must be handled.This opens a "window" for the establishment of an antitrust exemption system for the insurance industry.The United States promulgated the McCarran-Ferguson Act in 1945,which stipulated that in addition to agreements that severely impair competition,such as boycotts,coercion or intimidation actions,they could not evade antitrust regulations.McCarran-Ferguson Act advocated exemption from antitrust law and gave the insurance industry almost complete exemption from "treatment." Although in the subsequent judicial practice,narrow interpretation of the "insurance industry",broad definition of "joint boycott",and reinterpretation of the "state act exemption theory",the scope of the antitrust law for insurance exemption has been gradually reduced.However,the controversial McCarran Act still exists and applies.In 1991,the European Union established an insurance industry exemption system that partially exempted insurance-specific types of agreements through the IBER.The regulation clearly stipulated specific types of exemption agreement types,applicable exemption conditions,etc.In addition,the regulations had been granted a specific period of application and can regularly adjust the content of the regulations according to the changed insurance market,with sufficient flexibility.The status quo of late start-up,inadequate development,severe disorderly industry competition and widespread loss in China's insurance industry determine that it is necessary at this stage to treat the insurance industry in a special way and establish an insurance industry exemption system.While the industry exemptions from the insurance industry are obviously out of date,and individual exemptions are not due to the current capabilities of China's antitrust law enforcement agencies.Drawing lessons from EU classification exemptions,exploring and establishing an insurance industry exemption system suitable for China's current national conditions is an ideal choice.The construction of China's insurance industry exemption system should not be exempted from the core limitations as the basic principles of legislation,the types of specific agreements that can be exempted should include at least the following aspects:conditional exemption of information exchange behavior,the difference type applies to the exemption of co-insurance And,in principle,exempt from the development of standard policy terms.Moreover,when exemptions are applied to the insurance industry,the exemption revocation rights of the anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies should be preserved,and attention should be paid to rationalizing the relationship between insurance regulation and anti-monopoly enforcement.