{"id":458021,"date":"2022-08-25T15:25:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T13:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=458021"},"modified":"2022-08-25T15:32:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T13:32:48","slug":"competition-commission-raids-8-insurance-companies-for-alleged-collusion-including-discovery-sanlam-and-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/458021-competition-commission-raids-8-insurance-companies-for-alleged-collusion-including-discovery-sanlam-and-momentum.html","title":{"rendered":"Competition Commission raids 8 insurance companies for alleged collusion \u2014 including Discovery, Sanlam, and Momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Competition Commission conducted search and seizure operations at the premises of eight major insurance companies in South Africa on Thursday, 25 August 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The commission said it had &#8220;reasonable grounds&#8221; to suspect the companies had engaged in collusive practices in contravention of section 4(1)(b)(i) of the Competition Act.<\/p>\n<p>The companies are alleged to have fixed prices and trading conditions in respect of fees for investment products such as retirement annuity and premiums for risk-related products, including\u00a0life insurance cover such as dread disease cover, chronic medical condition cover, disability cover, life cover and funeral assistance benefits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;According to the information at the disposal of the Commission, 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,&#8221; the commission stated.<\/p>\n<p>The insurance companies targeted in the raids were as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>BrightRock Life Limited;<\/li>\n<li>Discovery Limited;<\/li>\n<li>FMI, a division of Bidvest Life Limited;<\/li>\n<li>Hollard Insurance Group (Pty) Ltd;<\/li>\n<li>Momentum, a division of MMI Limited;<\/li>\n<li>Old Mutual Insure Limited;<\/li>\n<li>Professional Provident Society Limited and<\/li>\n<li>South African National Life Assurance Company (Pty) Ltd (Sanlam)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The commission said the search and seizure operations were being conducted as part of an ongoing investigation initiated by the commissioner in January 2021.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In terms of section 48 of the Act, the Commission is authorised to enter and search premises and seize documents that have a bearing on its investigation,&#8221; it explained.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Commission has obtained warrants authorising it to search these companies from the North Gauteng (Pretoria) High Court, Kwazulu Natal (Durban) High Court, and Western Cape High Court.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The operations are being conducted at five sites in Gauteng, two in Western Cape, and one in KwaZulu-Natal,&#8221; the commission stated.<\/p>\n<p>The search will include the seizure of documents and electronic data, which will be analysed together with other information gathered to determine whether these firms have contravened the Act.<\/p>\n<p>The commission added the operations were being conducted with &#8220;due regard to the rights of all affected persons&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The search and seizure operation is part of the routine process of evidence gathering and we urge all involved to allow the investigation to run its course,&#8221; said commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Commission will at an appropriate stage reveal the outcome of the investigation,&#8221; said Bonakele.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/banking\/456597-nedbank-slapped-with-r35-million-fica-fine.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Nedbank slapped with R35 million FICA fine<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The offices of Discovery, Sanlam, Old Mutual, Momentum and four other major long-term insurance companies were raided on Thursday to gather evidence on alleged collusion in setting fees for investment products. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":394569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[80935,3222,15844,35,70722,52553,63865,80309,68964,40002,58858],"class_list":["post-458021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bidvest-life","tag-competition-commission","tag-discovery","tag-headline","tag-hollard","tag-life-insurance","tag-momentum","tag-old-mutual-insure","tag-professional-provident-society-pps","tag-sanlam","tag-tembinkosi-bonakele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458023,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458021\/revisions\/458023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}