BRUSSELS (Bloomberg) — European Union regulators are considering scrapping an antitrust exemption that allows European insurers, reinsurers and brokers to share data, write standard contract terms and set premiums.

The European Commission, the EU's antitrust regulator, said it will ask insurance industry participants whether the exemption, which expires in March 2010, should be scrapped, revised or renewed. The rule is known as the Insurance Block Exemption.

"We need to investigate how the insurance block exemption is working in practice and whether there are sufficient grounds to renew it," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement yesterday. "Sector specific competition regulations are exceptional legal instruments. If there are to be special rules for a particular sector, I need to be convinced that they are justified in terms of bringing real benefits to competition and to consumers."

The commission said last September that it wasn't convinced that the exemption should be renewed. The regulator said in a report after a two-year probe that insurers may be acting together to limit competition and raise prices.

The deadline to respond to the EU's questionnaire is July 17. The commission will publish a report in 2009 if it decides to scrap the exemption. Otherwise, it will draft a revised regulation.