PARIS (Reuters) – Reinsurer Scor has lodged a complaint with the European Commission about what it considers Caisse Centrale de Reassurance's (CCR) unfair dominance of France's natural disaster reinsurance market, Scor said on Friday.
Scor wants a change to a 1982 French law allowing CCR to provide natural disaster reinsurance coverage across France with an exclusive full state guarantee, arguing it is a distortion of fair competition.
"The exclusive nature of this guarantee … gives CCR a de facto virtual monopoly, enabling it to control a market share of over 90 percent," Scor said in a statement.
Scor's decision to turn to the European Commission, which enforces EU anti-trust rules, follows a ruling by the French Constitutional Council on Friday that the state guarantee was in line with the French Constitution.
"The Constitutional Council was clear and unambiguous. We have no further comment to make," said a CCR spokeswoman.
Scor is already pursuing the matter at a national level with the Paris Commercial Court.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.