The following guidelines are provided to assist you in complying with the antitrust laws as you participate in any activities and meetings of The Institutes CRC organization. Congress and the state legislatures have enacted antitrust laws to encourage competition among businesses. These laws forbid agreements among competitors in the marketplace which restrict a company’s freedom to make independent decisions in matters affecting competition.

Representatives of insurance companies may freely recommend and take coordinated action on matters relating to state and federal legislation, either to support or oppose such proposals. For example, legitimate topics of discussion at a meeting may include an industry position on legislative issues, methods for lobbying and testimony or meetings with state legislators, regulators or non-insurance groups to pursue these objectives. Representatives of insurance companies can also discuss non-legislative subjects, such as technology, research and methodology.

However, representatives and other participants in CRC activities and meetings must still remember that their respective companies may be competitors in the marketplace, and they must exercise care in discussing non-legislative subjects, as even innocuous discussions could later be misinterpreted as illegal collusion among the companies. The main rule of thumb for representatives and other participants in CRC activities and meetings is to remember that they should not discuss, formally or informally, any matters relating to individual company rates, underwriting, coverages or marketing by way of their discussions about catastrophe topics. That is, information can be exchanged on a wide variety of subjects, but if the exchange relates to the future competitive behavior of an individual company or will affect the independent business decisions of companies that are meeting, such information exchanges should be avoided. The best advice to representatives and other participants in CRC activities and meetings is to stay within the formal agenda and to avoid any informal or formal discussion relating to specific company plans.

The following guidelines are provided to assist you in complying with the antitrust laws as you participate in any activities and meetings of The Institutes CRC organization. Congress and the state legislatures have enacted antitrust laws to encourage competition among businesses. These laws forbid agreements among competitors in the marketplace which restrict a company’s freedom to make independent decisions in matters affecting competition.

Representatives of insurance companies may freely recommend and take coordinated action on matters relating to state and federal legislation, either to support or oppose such proposals. For example, legitimate topics of discussion at a meeting may include an industry position on legislative issues, methods for lobbying and testimony or meetings with state legislators, regulators or non-insurance groups to pursue these objectives. Representatives of insurance companies can also discuss non-legislative subjects, such as technology, research and methodology.

However, representatives and other participants in CRC activities and meetings must still remember that their respective companies may be competitors in the marketplace, and they must exercise care in discussing non-legislative subjects, as even innocuous discussions could later be misinterpreted as illegal collusion among the companies. The main rule of thumb for representatives and other participants in CRC activities and meetings is to remember that they should not discuss, formally or informally, any matters relating to individual company rates, underwriting, coverages or marketing by way of their discussions about catastrophe topics. That is, information can be exchanged on a wide variety of subjects, but if the exchange relates to the future competitive behavior of an individual company or will affect the independent business decisions of companies that are meeting, such information exchanges should be avoided. The best advice to representatives and other participants in CRC activities and meetings is to stay within the formal agenda and to avoid any informal or formal discussion relating to specific company plans.