Moneyweb
The Competition Commission has conducted a search and seizure operation at eight of South Africa's leading insurance companies operating in Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape.
A spokesperson Sipho Ngwema says the Commission has reasonable grounds to suspect Brightrock Life Limited, Discovery Limited, FMI- a division of MMI Limited as well as Sanlam, Old Mutual Insure Limited and the Professional Provident Society Limited of engaging in collusive practices to fix prices and/or trading conditions.
He says this is in respect of fees for r investment products such as retirement annuity and premiums for risk-related products, namely, life insurance cover such as dread disease cover / chronic medical condition cover, disability cover, life cover and funeral assistance benefits in contravention of section 4(1)(b)(i) of the Competition Act.
Ngwema says according to the information at their disposal, the companies under investigation share information on 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.
He says the search and seizure operations form part of an ongoing investigation that was initiated in January last year.
The Commission seized documents and electronic data which will be analysed with other information.
