Fuel, motor insurance and telemarketing: approval of the Competition Bill is postponed
The draft bill provides for strict controls on fuel distribution, a review of the no-claims/claims bonus scheme for motor insurance, and a crackdown on unsolicited sales calls in the telecommunications sector
Key points
Reform of the distribution of fuel, authorisation granted to the government to review insurance regulations motor vehicle liability insurance and a crackdown on telemarketing in the telecommunications sector. These are some of the key measures contained in the new annual competition bill: the bill was expected to be discussed by the Council of Ministers but does not appear on the agenda released late this morning.
Fuels
The draft bill provides for tighter controls – including anti-Mafia measures – on fuel distribution facilities. An operating licence may only be issued to those who demonstrate that they possess ‘the technical, organisational and financial capacity necessary to ensure the continuity and regularity’ of the service, to those who are not guilty of fraud, criminal offences or grounds for automatic exclusion from public contracts, to those who comply with social security contribution regulations, and to those who apply the national collective labour agreement, ‘subject to presentation of the single document of social security compliance (DURC)’.
The granting of the licence will also be “subject to checks regarding anti-Mafia documentation”. From 2028 onwards, in order to operate, service stations will have to supply not only petrol and diesel but also alternative fuels. They will also need to embrace the green transition, albeit with state support: incentives totalling €112 million will be granted over three years (2028, 2029 and 2030) to help them convert into electric charging stations or biofuel distribution points.
Car insurance
As regards motor vehicle liability insurance, the government will be granted powers to ‘link the cost of the premium to the risk actually assumed by the insurer’, make the direct compensation system more efficient, and step up the fight against insurance fraud and evasion of the insurance obligation.
The reform must begin with a review of the bonus-malus system, which must be based ‘on a wider range of information and more advanced risk assessment methods, so as to better reward safe driving behaviour and reduce the relative weight of certain indirect variables – in particular geographical location – thereby further stimulating competition between insurers to the benefit of policyholders’.
