The Competition Commission on Friday raided eight long-term insurance companies who are allegedly suspected of price fixing.
The raids took place in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal at the head offices of BrightRock Life Limited; Discovery Limited; FMI, a division of Bidvest Life Limited; Hollard Insurance Group (Pty) Ltd, Momentum, a division of MMI Limited; Old Mutual Insure Limited; Professional Provident Society Limited and South African National Life Assurance Company (Pty) Ltd (Sanlam).
The commission said it has reasonable grounds to suspect that those companies colluded to fix prices and trading conditions.
The commission said the search and seizure operations have been conducted as part of an ongoing investigation that was initiated by the commissioner in January 2021.
Sipho Ngwema, said the commission had reasonable grounds to suspect the insurers colluded to fic prices and/or trading conditions in respect of fees for investment products such as retirement annuity and premiums for risk-related products, namely, life insurance cover such as dread disease cover or chronic medical condition cover, disability cover, life cover and funeral assistance benefits in contravention of section 4(1)(b)(i) of the competition Act.
“According to the information at the disposal of the commission, the companies under investigation share information at premium rates for risk-related products and fees for investment products, which enables them to adjust the prices of their existing and new insurance products,” said Ngwema.
“We went into five sites in Gauteng, two in the Western Cape, and one in KwaZulu-Natal where we are looking for information-whether it is in documents or electronically, in support of our investigation.”
Some of the companies flagged include Old Mutual, The South African National Assurance Company and Sanlam.
Investigators will analyse the information to determine whether these firms have contravened the Competition Act. Ngwema said they were hoping to gather evidence to support the allegations.
Source: Eyewitness News, IOL, image from IOL