Brick Court Chambers

News & Events

‘One of the super-sets’, Brick Court Chambers is ‘an all-round strong’ set with ‘a large selection of high-quality competition law specialists’, ‘top commercial counsel’, ‘an excellent chambers for banking litigation’, and a ‘go-to’ set for public administrative law.
The Legal 500 2020
The clerks’ room ‘sets the benchmark’ for other sets with its ‘friendly, knowledgeable, and hardworking’ clerks.
The Legal 500 2020
"An outstanding commercial set with a track record of excellence across its core areas of work."
Chambers & Partners 2018
"A set that is singled out for its "first-rate" clerking and "client service-oriented, commercial approach."

Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission settles price signalling case

23/08/21

On 20 August 2021 the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (‘CCPC’) accepted legally-binding commitments from AIG, Allianz, AXA, Aviva, FBD and the AA following an investigation of a possible concerted practice in the private motor insurance (‘PMI’) sector in Ireland by way of price signalling.

The CCPC’s preliminary assessment was that the six insurers and a trade association of brokers had made a series of public announcements of future PMI premiums over a 21-month period in 2015 and 2016. The firms involved were suspected of having reduced strategic uncertainty between themselves as to whether there would be increases in PMI premiums.

The parties under investigation denied any breach of competition law; however, the six insurers agreed with the CCPC to strengthen their respective competition law compliance programmes. In addition, the CCPC wrote to the Irish Central Bank to raise concerns about the culture in the insurance industry. 

Details of the CCPC’s investigation and its agreements with the insurers are here.

An article on the same subject also appeared in the Irish Times, and is here.

David Bailey acted for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.