Bulgaria's anti-trust watchdog has fined 14 general insurance companies a total of 2.45 mln levs for entering a price-fixing cartel agreement. The Commission for the Protection of Competition said that the memorandum signed by the fined companies in December 2007 sought to establish an industry-wide minimum premium on third-party liability insurance as well as a cap on the commissions payable to insurance brokers.

The fines range from 100,000 to 250,000 levs from company to company. Most of the fined insurers that agreed to comment for Dnevnik said they will appeal the sanction.

Some of the insurers said the fine may lead to an increase in the third-party liability insurance to 500 leva. The only insurers that declined to sign the memorandum were DZI General Insurance and Uniqa.

Orlin Penev, chairman of the Association of Bulgarian Insurers, said the memorandum aimed to establish a uniform policy that would have strengthened the market and would not have set minimum prices.