Comparison website in the spotlight

Britain’s competition watchdog is understood to be investigating comparethemarket.com over arrangements with insurers.

The comparison website is being probed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on so called ‘most favoured nation clauses’.

The special contracts, where an insurer agrees with a comparison website not to offer a lower deal with a rival site, “may result in higher home insurance prices”, the CMA said.

While the watchdog did not specifically name comparethemarket.com, it is understood to be the firm under investigation.

“We welcome the CMA’s conclusions that digital comparison tools are a force for good which lower prices for consumers and inject competition into markets,” the firm said.

“comparethemarket. com operates some simple contractual arrangements with home insurers to ensure that our customers always get the lowest available price.

“We welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with the CMA.”

In its final report into the use of pricecomparison sites, the antitrust watchdog’s wider findings include setting clear ‘ground rules’ for all online operators.

This includes communicating how they plan to use personal data, and clearly displaying important information like price and product description.

The principle recommendations of the CMA’s report demand all sites are clear about how they make money, how many deals they’re displaying and how they are ordering the results.

CEO Andrea Coscelli said: “The good news is more than 90% of the people we surveyed were very or fairly satisfied with the sites they used.

“But we have also found improvements are needed to help people get even better deals.

“We have set out ground rules for how sites should behave, as well as being clear on how regulators can ensure people have a better experience online.”