VIETNAM INSURERS FINED FOR PRICE COLLUSION

The Vietnam Competition Council has fined 19 insurers for collusion on increasing the cost of motor insurance, according to a report on the Vietnam Ministry of Trade & Industry web site. The 19 companies accounted for more than 99.5% of the country's motor insurance sector when in 2008 15 of them signed a motor insurance agreement. Four others joined before the end of the year. The statement said that "the companies violated competition law when they signed the agreement". Each company will have to pay 0.025% of 2007 total revenue, plus VND100m ($5,000) in fines, which local paper Dau Tu claimed would reach VND2bn in total. The investigation by the Trade Ministry began in November 2008 (IIN 24, November 27 2008), when it was alleged that the insurers had agreed to price increases of between 1.3% and 1.56% every year. The Vietnamese Insurance Association claimed at the time that the agreement would make the insurance market a healthier and safer place. It also noted that no insurer was required to sign a written agreement on the implementation and that it had not therefore broken any law.