Competition Bureau Concludes Examination into ICBC Policies
August 15, 2008
Background
Following receipt of a complaint from six residents of Canada, the Competition Bureau (the
"Bureau") commenced an inquiry on February 28, 2007, to determine whether certain policies
and practices of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (“ICBC”) constituted reviewable
conduct under the Competition Act (the "Act"). In particular, the inquiry focused upon whether
ICBC's policies constituted a practice of anti-competitive acts that lessened or prevented
competition substantially in a relevant market, contrary to the abuse of dominance provision of
the Act, section 79.
ICBC is a provincial Crown corporation that provides mandatory basic automobile insurance
(primarily minimum third party liability and accident benefits) to all drivers in B.C. and
competes with other insurance companies in supplying optional auto insurance products,
including excess liability, collision, and comprehensive coverage. It markets its insurance under
the name Autoplan and sells it through brokers across British Columbia.
The complaint alleged that ICBC had prevented and lessened competition substantially in the
provision of optional auto insurance in B.C. by:
1)
requiring brokers that sell ICBC insurance and who are affiliated with a competing
insurance company, not sell their affiliate's optional auto insurance;
2)
coercing certain non-affiliated brokers not to sell private optional insurance or to favour
ICBC’s optional insurance; and
3)
prohibiting brokers from “screen scraping” customer data from ICBC’s online database
for use in preparing quotes and processing transactions for optional insurance offered by
private insurers.
This Backgrounder summarizes the Bureau’s main findings in this matter.
Readers should exercise caution in interpreting the Bureau's assessment. Enforcement decisions
are made on a case-by-case basis and the conclusions discussed in this backgrounder are specific
to the present matter and are not binding on the Com