“City Insurance was a kind of Caritas. He came with low prices to attract a lot of people, he then paid with that money, so he still tried to keep that piece. Obviously, with the disappearance of City, we expected some increase in prices, but the increase is high, above the level of inflation, and we are cooperating with the ASF on this issue,” Bohdan Chiritsoyu, president of the Competition Council, said on Thursday.

He made the clarification after he was asked by the media on Thursday whether he suspected an artificial increase in RCA prices following the bankruptcy of City Insurance.

A cat with bells does not catch many mice – Chiritsa’s answer to the question of whether he opened an investigation into this case

The head of the Competition Council said that he had asked the State Financial Supervision Authority to send statistics on the increase in RCA prices. However, he denied that he had launched an investigation.

• “We’ve never announced what we’re going to do, the bell cat doesn’t catch a lot of mice, so I can’t tell you who and when we’ll be investigating, but it’s an area we’re looking at. because we have seen significant price increases, but we are working with ASF.
• The ASF is pleased that there is no longer a questionable player like City in the market, where we consistently find that they have not only behaved questionably, but have been fraudulent. This is also a criminal investigation.
• ASF sees an improvement in the market, it no longer has a city, it has companies that are serious, with a reputation, they are no longer making losses, they are making a profit, so from ASF’s point of view, things are looking better and we don’t want to disrupt the market “, – said Bohdan Chiritsoyu.

RCA car repair fines: problems found at Renault may be elsewhere. There is already an investigation at Auto Italia / Fiat

On the other hand, he said that in addition to working with the ASF, which is mainly responsible for overseeing the insurance market, the body he leads conducts its own competition law investigations.

Kiritsoi reminded me of this last year, the authorities applied sanctions to 65 companies and the association ACODAREN with total fines of more than 130 million lei (approximately 26 million euros) allegedly involved in a cartel in the car maintenance and repair market in Romania.

• “Out of the total amount of the fine, somewhere around 20 million euros went to insurance companies, which we also fined 30 million a few years ago.
• At the same time, we have to continue to look at this area of ​​RCA and repairs, because if we find problems at Renault, with the services agreed by Renault and the insurance companies, they can be found elsewhere, and we already have an investigation with Auto Italia, so in terms of Fiat.
• Here we are looking at much the same thing that we looked at Renault. It’s not identical, but there are similarities.
• And this is where insurance companies investigate. (in Uniqa Asigurari)”, the President of the Competition Council also stated.

He said that in the ACODAREN investigation, with one exception, all the firms had admitted their anti-competitive practices, obtaining reduced fines.

Allianz-Țiriac rejected the conclusions of the Competition Council / “We will challenge the decision in court”

The exception is Allianz-Țiriac Asigurări, which had to pay a fine of 11 million euros.

• “Current legal provisions generally encourage admission of facts in the event of an investigation, even an incomplete one, offering a generous discount from the initial fine and implicitly reducing the impact on the solvency of the company under investigation.
• The fact that Allianz-Țiriac pleaded not guilty and refused a significant discount from the Competition Council puts us in the unfair position of paying the highest fine applied in this case.
• However, our financial stability allows us not to make compromises, absorb the shock and ultimately prove our innocence by challenging the decision in court.” reacted Allianz-țiriac Asigurări.

In the investigation in question, the antitrust authority alleged that all fined firms coordinated their commercial behavior through ACODAREN, jointly agreeing, among other things, a fixed level of prices for spare parts and labor rates used for certain insurance companies. Thus, they eliminated competition among themselves.

These actions were supported, consolidated and reinforced by the conduct and actions carried out by Renault Commercial Roumanie SRL, RCI Broker de Asigurare SRL and the insurance companies Allianz-Țiriac Asigurări SA, Omniasig Vienna Insurance Group SA, Groupama Asigurări SA, Uniqa Asigurări SA , Asigurarea Românească – Asirom Vienna Insurance Group SA, Euroins România Asigurare – Reasigurare SA, Societatea Asigurare – Reasigurare Astra SA, their participation gives the agreement a larger scope than if it was limited to the coordination of the behavior of repairers.