(Previous installments here)
Because of convincing evidence that interbrand competition, here
competition between insurance brands measured by the rate of consumers’ price-based
switching, is very effective when exercised on PCWs, the Competition Commission
can be legitimately concerned not to hamper the attractiveness of these
platforms’ business model. However, while the direct anticompetitive effects of
narrow MFN clauses may appear limited, their cumulative, or “network”
effect could still have momentous consequences for competition in the PMI
market.
Once wide MFNs are prohibited, an insurer is able to agree
different PMI premiums with different PCWs. If a PCW retains, or introduces, a
narrow MFN, the insurer will be constrained not to offer on its own website a
premium lower than the price agreed with that PCW. When the same insurer agrees
on a narrow MFN clause with a number of PCWs, the cumulative effect is that the
insurer's directly offered price cannot be lower than the price it offers on
any of its partner PCWs’ websites. The end result is that the price displayed
by the insurer on its own website would be the same as the least competitive partner PCW.
Therefore, one unintended consequence of the cumulative
effect of narrow MFNs could be that the PMI providers with significant and
high-profit direct sales would still prefer charging the same price through all
PCWs in order to maintain the attractiveness of their own channel, so that the
narrow MFN clause becomes a de facto
wide MFN clause. Of course, this in turn will depend on a number of factors,
such as the strength of the PMI’s brand and the presence of alternative channels
to efficiently market PMI policies, which make direct sales less attractive to
the PMI.
(To be continued)
