PhD defence G.T. (Gerrit) Baak

Certain risks are too large or complex to be borne by an insurer. These risks are often insured through co-insurance: an insurance technique based on the fact that every insurer bears part of a risk. Characteristic of this method of spreading risk is the great need for cooperation between market parties. From a competition law perspective, this raises all kinds of questions. Is market behavior not (too much) coordinated with each other when co-insurance uses the same premium and conditions? And are insurers, for example, sufficiently free to insure risks outside a pool? For the first time, this book thoroughly maps out how insurance in co-insurance or via pools relates to the content of competition law. Innovative in this is the empirical research that is partly the basis of the description of the business insurance market in the Netherlands and the subsequent involvement of competition law, making use of economic and legal insights. The book is structured in three parts. In Part I, the reader first of all finds a description of the content of competition law and the context of the business insurance market in the Netherlands. Subsequently, part II examines how competition law applies to three important stages in the insurance chain, namely the conclusion of a contract in co-insurance or via pools, the content thereof and the claims settlement process. Using the results of the empirical study, each sub-area describes how the insurance market functions and the points at which this creates tension with competition law. Finally, in part III, the author presents a number of specific recommendations on how to deal with the tensions between competition & insurance. The author concludes that more attention needs to be paid to familiarity with competition rules in the business insurance market and provides a number of tools for this.

The public defence will take place at the Senatehall, 1st floor of the Erasmus Building, Campus Woudestein. The ceremony will begin exactly at 15.30 hrs. In light of the solemn nature of the ceremony, we recommend that you do not take children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony.