Consumers sue insurance firms for price fixing

At least 1,500 financial consumers have joined a class action suit against seven major life insurance firms, a spokesman of the Korea Finance Consumer Federation said Sunday.

He said the lawsuit followed the allegation that the seven firms, including Samsung Life, had sought to collect more insurance premiums via price fixing.

Samsung Life saw the most complaints as about 600 policyholders participated in the suit, followed by Kyobo Life Insurance Co. with about 360 and Hanwha Life Insurance with about 330.

The rest were clients of Tongyang Insurance Co., KDB Life Insurance, Mirae Asset Life Insurance Co. and Dongbu Life Insurance Co.

The KFCF and attorneys are gathering more applicants who are victimized by the life insurance firms’ collusion for group actions, KFCF’s partner attorney Cho Jeong-hwan said.

The insurance-monitoring organization expects that its legal assistance and low legal service expenses ― 30,000 won per plaintiff ― will lead more people to participate in the class action.

Through the class action, the plaintiffs are seeking damages for the insurance firms’ cartel for designating the expected interest rate, a crucial factor in calculating individuals’ life insurance premiums.

The expected interest rate is inversely related to the insurance cost, and applicants with fewer health risks generally receive higher interest rates. The 1,500 clients claim that the insurance companies have been manipulating the rate to gather bigger profits for themselves.

According to court records, big-name life insurance firms, including Samsung Life Insurance, Hanwha Life Insurance and Kyobo Life Insurance Co., are involved in the legal battle.

“The first instance of each class action against these firms will take about one year,” the KFCF said in an online statement.

The class-action began after 12 major life insurance companies were fined a total of 365.3 billion won ($315 million) in 2011 by the Fair Trade Commission for colluding to set the expected interest rate between 2001 and 2006.

The nation’s antitrust watchdog said that six major companies, including Samsung Life Insurance, Korea Life Insurance and Kyobo Life Insurance Co., took the lead in the cartel.

The FTC applied a 157.8 billion won penalty against Samsung, 134.2 billion won on Kyobo, 48.6 billion won on Korea, and 6.6 billion won on Allianz. Hengkuk was fined 4.3 billion won and Shinhan 3.3 billion won.

The FTC is preparing to sanction the life insurance companies again, for collusion over minimum warrant commission and other premium rates, which reportedly were artificially fixed to the same amount between 2001 and 2005. The antitrust watchdog has investigated the case since May, 2012.

By Chung Joo-won
(joowonc@heraldcorp.com) 




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[단독] 삼성생명 등 고객 1500명 집단소송

생명보험사 담합 혐의와 관련한 집단소송에 1500명 이상의 소비자가 참여한 것으로 3일 확인됐다.

법원은 최근 이들이 7개 생보사를 상대로 제기한 소송에 일련의 사건번호를 부여했다. 금융소비자연맹에 따르면, 삼성생명 보험계약자가 6백여명으로 가장 많았고 교보생명과 한화생명(구 대한생명)을 상대로 한 원고 수는 각 3백여명으로 집계됐다.

이에 앞서 공정거래위원회는 생보업계의 이율담합으로 인한 고객들의 피해액이 17조원에 달한다고 발표한 바 있다. 담합으로 인해 보험료를 더 부담했다는 설명이다.

보장성보험 상품에 책정하는 예정이율의 경우, 높게 잡으면 보험료는 내려가고 반대의 경우는 올라간다.

공정위는 지난 2011년 생보사 16곳에 과징금 3천6백억원을 부과했다. 6년간 담합행위에 가담한 혐의다.

(코리아헤럴드 정주원 기자)