
CHAPTER I
Article 1 
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

1.. ‘agreement’ means an agreement, a decision of an association of undertakings or a concerted practice;
2.. ‘participating undertakings’ means undertakings party to the agreement and their respective connected undertakings;
3.. ‘connected undertakings’ means:

((a)) undertakings in which a party to the agreement, directly or indirectly:

((i)) has the power to exercise more than half the voting rights; or
((ii)) has the power to appoint more than half the members of the supervisory board, board of management or bodies legally representing the undertaking; or
((iii)) has the right to manage the undertaking’s affairs;
((b)) undertakings which directly or indirectly have, over a party to the agreement, the rights or powers listed in point (a);
((c)) undertakings in which an undertaking referred to in point (b) has, directly or indirectly, the rights or powers listed in point (a);
((d)) undertakings in which a party to the agreement together with one or more of the undertakings referred to in points (a), (b) or (c), or in which two or more of the latter undertakings, jointly have the rights or powers listed in point (a);
((e)) undertakings in which the rights or powers listed in point (a) are jointly held by:

((i)) parties to the agreement or their respective connected undertakings referred to in points (a) to (d); or
((ii)) one or more of the parties to the agreement or one or more of their connected undertakings referred to in points (a) to (d) and one or more third parties;
4.. ‘co-insurance pools’ means groups set up by insurance undertakings either directly or through brokers or authorised agents, with the exception of ad-hoc co-insurance agreements on the subscription market, whereby a certain part of a given risk is covered by a lead insurer and the remaining part of the risk is covered by follow insurers who are invited to cover that remainder, which:

((a)) agree to underwrite, in the name and for the account of all the participants, the insurance of a specified risk category; or
((b)) entrust the underwriting and management of the insurance of a specified risk category, in their name and on their behalf, to one of the insurance undertakings, to a common broker or to a common body set up for this purpose;
5.. ‘co-reinsurance pools’ means groups set up by insurance undertakings either directly or through broker or authorised agents, possibly with the assistance of one or more reinsurance undertakings, with the exception of ad-hoc co-reinsurance agreements on the subscription market, whereby a certain part of a given risk is covered by a lead insurer and the remaining part of this risk is covered by follow insurers who are then invited to cover that remainder in order to:

((a)) reinsure mutually all or part of their liabilities in respect of a specified risk category;
((b)) incidentally accept, in the name and on behalf of all the participants, the reinsurance of the same category of risks;
6.. ‘new risks’ means:

((a)) risks which did not previously exist, and for which insurance cover requires the development of an entirely new insurance product, not involving an extension, improvement or replacement of an existing insurance product; or
((b)) in exceptional cases, risks the nature of which has, on the basis of an objective analysis, changed so materially that it is not possible to know in advance what subscription capacity is necessary in order to cover such a risk;
7.. ‘commercial premium’ means the price which is charged to the purchaser of an insurance policy.
CHAPTER II
Article 2 
Pursuant to Article 101(3) of the Treaty and subject to the provisions of this Regulation, Article 101(1) of the Treaty shall not apply to agreements entered into between two or more undertakings in the insurance sector with respect to:

((a)) the joint compilation and distribution of information necessary for the following purposes:

((i)) calculation of the average cost of covering a specified risk in the past (hereinafter compilations);
((ii)) construction of mortality tables, and tables showing the frequency of illness, accident and invalidity in connection with insurance involving an element of capitalisation (hereinafter tables);
((b)) the joint carrying-out of studies on the probable impact of general circumstances external to the interested undertakings, either on the frequency or scale of future claims for a given risk or risk category or on the profitability of different types of investment (hereinafter studies), and the distribution of the results of such studies.
Article 3 

1. The exemption provided for in Article 2(a) shall apply on condition that the compilations or tables:
(a) are based on the assembly of data, spread over a number of risk years chosen as an observation period, which relate to identical or comparable risks in sufficient numbers to constitute a base which can be handled statistically and which will yield figures on the following, amongst others:
((i)) the number of claims during the said period;
((ii)) the number of individual risks insured in each risk year of the chosen observation period;
((iii)) the total amounts paid or payable in respect of claims that have arisen during the said period;
((iv)) the total amount of capital insured for each risk year during the chosen observation period;
(b) include as detailed a breakdown of the available statistics as is actuarially adequate;
(c) do not include in any way elements for contingencies, income deriving from reserves, administrative or commercial costs or fiscal or parafiscal contributions, and take into account neither revenues from investments nor anticipated profits.
2. The exemptions provided for in Article 2 shall apply on condition that the compilations, tables or study results:
(a) do not identify the insurance undertakings concerned or any insured party;
(b) when compiled and distributed, include a statement that they are non-binding;
(c) do not contain any indication of the level of commercial premiums;
(d) are made available on reasonable, affordable and non-discriminatory terms, to any insurance undertaking which requests a copy of them, including insurance undertakings which are not active on the geographic or product market to which those compilations, tables or study results refer;
(e) except where non-disclosure is objectively justified on grounds of public security, are made available on reasonable, affordable and non-discriminatory terms, to consumer organisations or customer organisations which request access to them in specific and precise terms for a duly justified reason.
Article 4 
The exemptions provided for in Article 2 shall not apply where participating undertakings enter into an undertaking or commitment among themselves, or oblige other undertakings, not to use compilations or tables that differ from those referred to in Article 2(a), or not to depart from the results of the studies referred to in Article 2(b).
CHAPTER III
Article 5 
Pursuant to Article 101(3) of the Treaty and subject to the provisions of this Regulation, Article 101(1) of the Treaty shall not apply to agreements entered into between two or more undertakings in the insurance sector with respect to the setting-up and operation of pools of insurance undertakings or of insurance undertakings and reinsurance undertakings for the common coverage of a specific category of risks in the form of co-insurance or co-reinsurance.
Article 6 

1. As concerns co-insurance or co-reinsurance pools which are created in order exclusively to cover new risks, the exemption provided for in Article 5 shall apply for a period of three years from the date of the first establishment of the pool, regardless of the market share of the pool.
2. As concerns co-insurance or co-reinsurance pools which do not fall within the scope of paragraph 1, the exemption provided for in Article 5 shall apply as long as this Regulation remains in force, on condition that the combined market share held by the participating undertakings does not exceed:
(a) in the case of co-insurance pools, 20 % of any relevant market;
(b) in the case of co-reinsurance pools, 25 % of any relevant market.
3. In calculating the market share of a participating undertaking on the relevant market, account shall be taken of:
(a) the market share of the participating undertaking within the pool in question;
(b) the market share of the participating undertaking within another pool on the same relevant market as the pool in question, to which the participating undertaking is a party; and
(c) the market share of the participating undertaking on the same relevant market as the pool in question, outside any pool.
4. For the purposes of applying the market share thresholds provided for in paragraph 2, the following rules shall apply:
(a) the market share shall be calculated on the basis of gross premium income; if gross premium income data are not available, estimates based on other reliable market information, including insurance cover provided or insured risk value, may be used to establish the market share of the undertaking concerned;
(b) the market share shall be calculated on the basis of data relating to the preceding calendar year.
5. Where the market share referred to in paragraph 2(a) is initially not more than 20 % but subsequently rises above that level without exceeding 25 %, the exemption provided for in Article 5 shall continue to apply for a period of two consecutive calendar years following the year in which the 20 % threshold was first exceeded.
6. Where the market share referred to in paragraph 2(a) is initially not more than 20 % but subsequently rises above 25 %, the exemption provided for in Article 5 shall continue to apply for a period of one calendar year following the year in which the level of 25 % was first exceeded.
7. The benefit of paragraphs 5 and 6 may not be combined so as to exceed a period of two calendar years.
8. Where the market share referred to in paragraph 2(b) is initially not more than 25 % but subsequently rises above that level without exceeding 30 %, the exemption provided for in Article 5 shall continue to apply for a period of two consecutive calendar years following the year in which the 25 % threshold was first exceeded.
9. Where the market share referred to in paragraph 2(b) is initially not more than 25 % but subsequently rises above 30 %, the exemption provided for in Article 5 shall continue to apply for a period of one calendar year following the year in which the level of 30 % was first exceeded.
10. The benefit of paragraphs 8 and 9 may not be combined so as to exceed a period of two calendar years.
Article 7 
The exemption provided for in Article 5 shall apply on condition that:

((a)) each participating undertaking having given a reasonable period of notice has the right to withdraw from the pool, without incurring any sanctions;
((b)) the rules of the pool do not oblige any participating undertaking of the pool to insure or reinsure through the pool and do not restrict any participating undertaking of the pool from insuring or reinsuring outside the pool, in whole or in part, any risk of the type covered by the pool;
((c)) the rules of the pool do not restrict the activity of the pool or its participating undertakings to the insurance or reinsurance of risks located in any particular geographical part of the Union;
((d)) the agreement does not limit output or sales;
((e)) the agreement does not allocate markets or customers; and
((f)) the participating undertakings of a co-reinsurance pool do not agree on the commercial premiums which they charge for direct insurance.
CHAPTER IV
Article 8 
The prohibition laid down in Article 101(1) of the Treaty shall not apply during the period from 1 April 2010 to 30 September 2010 in respect of agreements already in force on 31 March 2010 which do not satisfy the conditions for exemption provided for in this Regulation but which satisfy the conditions for exemption provided for in Regulation (EC) No 358/2003.
Article 9 
This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 April 2010.
It shall expire on 31 March 2017.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.Done at Brussels, 24 March 2010.
For the Commission
The President
José Manuel BARROSO