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On 24 March 2010, the European Commission (the Commission) adopted its long-awaited new block exemption regulation for the insurance sector, which will come into force on 1 April 2010.  Block exemptions are an instrument of European competition law that remove certain categories of agreement from the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements set out in Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (previously Article 81 EC Treaty). 

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Read More EU: European Commission Adopts New Competition Block Exemption Regulation for the Insurance Sector

As a first step in the European Commission’s delayed review of the Insurance Mediation Directive (the Directive) the Commission has written to the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) requesting technical advice on revisions to the Directive to improve its functioning. 

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Read More EU: European Commission Starts Review of the Insurance Mediation Directive Including Conflicts of Interest and Transparency

The head of the Insurance and Pensions Unit at the European Commission, Karel Van Hulle, confirmed that a meeting had been scheduled in early May to discuss extending the current October 2012 implementation deadline for the Solvency II regulatory regime to 1 January 2013. 

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Read More EU: Further Delays for Solvency II Implementation; No Exemptions for the Legacy Industry

The High Court ruled, in Clinton David Jacobs v Motor Insurers’ Bureau [2010] EWHC 231 (QB), that under European Union Regulation 864/2007 (Rome II), Spanish law applied in the case of a UK resident seeking compensation for serious injuries sustained in Spain, at the hands of an uninsured driver, then resident in Spain. 

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Read More UK: English High Court Finds That Rome II Applies to a Motor Compensation Dispute

At The Insider Scope 2010 seminar in London on 10 February 2010, Joe Plumeri, Chairman and Chief Executive of Willis – and “Number 1 Fan” of the insurance industry – put forward his outlook for the (re)insurance industry. During his speech, Mr Plumeri set out his “Top Ten Risks in 2010”. 

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Read More Chairman and Chief Executive of Willis Sets Out (Re)Insurance Industry’s “Top 10 Risks in 2010”

The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has recently announced that it has agreed to further enhance supervisory cooperation with the Swiss insurance supervisor, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). 

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Read More EU/UK: The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors and the Swiss Insurance Supervisor Agree to Enhance Supervisory Cooperation

The criminal proceedings in Turin against the former heads of asbestos giant Eternit (as previously reported here) have taken a new turn. A civil case has been linked to the criminal trial and both the European Union (EU) and the Italian Government have been named as civil defendants. It has been reported that 4,000 people have asked to join the case as plaintiffs, and 3,000 people are due to give evidence. 

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Read More Italy: Italian Government and EU are Named as Defendants in Eternit Asbestos Proceeding