​On Thursday, the government will adopt a draft decision to extend the RCA price cap, which would have ended on October 10, until the end of the year. “If we do not extend the restrictions, tariffs will increase at the most inappropriate period, during the winter holidays,” Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku said on Thursday.

• “Today we are also approving the draft resolution extending the tariff ceiling of the RSA until the end of the year. This is a justified decision, because the current limit of RCA tariffs ends on October 10. If we don’t extend the restrictions, rates will go up at the most inopportune time – the winter holidays.” This was announced by Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku on Thursday at the beginning of the government meeting.

On Thursday, September 28, the government discussed in the first reading the draft resolution on the extension of the RCA limit until December 31, 2023.

The measure, proposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (ASF), led by Nick Mark, aims to address the potential negative impact of rising prices.

The move is motivated by fears of higher RCA prices

The reasons for such a proposal are also indicated in the accompanying note of the draft government decision:

• “The normative act proposes to extend until December 31, 2023 the validity period of the provisions established by Government Resolution No. 2017. 298/2023 regarding the establishment of maximum rates of insurance premiums and other applicable measures by insurance companies that practice compulsory civil liability insurance of vehicle owners for damages caused to third parties as a result of traffic accidents of vehicles and trams.
• The regulatory act ensures the possibility of compliance with legal obligations arising from the conclusion of RCA contracts, on the basis of which compensations are provided to third parties as a result of such accidents.
• By applying this measure, the potential negative impact of price growth, the crisis situation caused by a large imbalance between demand and supply, and the obvious dysfunction of the market, as provided for in Article 4, are eliminated. (3) from the Law on Competition No. 21/1996, reissued.”, it is shown in the document.

ASF initially considered capping RCA prices until January 10, 2024

The ASF initially wanted to propose to the government to extend the RCA price cap for another 3 months, until January 10, 2024, citing the reason that all policies of RCA Euroins, the bankrupt insurer, are expiring, as they announced last month in a premiere for HotNews.ro several sources both from the government and from the insurance industry.

We remind you that in the context of the bankruptcy of Euroins, the Ciucă government decided to limit RCA prices to the level of basic prices (B0) practiced by insurers on February 28, 2023, to which the reduction or increase in price related to the bonus-malus class is applied according to the location of each insured.

Prices have been frozen from April 11, 2023 for 6 months ending on October 10, 2023.

The government also extended the term of RCA Euroins policies

At the end of last month, the government decided to extend the validity of RCA insurances issued by Euroins for another 3 months, until December 8 (inclusive), given that almost 1.7 million drivers still had RCA insured cars with this insurer, which became bankrupt.