A new regulation will oblige the companies to inform the insured before purchasing the policy of a requirement to purchase spare parts through them (photo: shutterstock)
A blow to the insurance companies, who in recent months have begun to implement a new exercise for the insured: a requirement to force private garages to also purchase parts through them to repair cars after an accident, and a unilateral offset from compensation for drivers who do not ensure that this happens.
Lavala learned that in recent weeks the commissioner of insurance handled complaints from drivers against companies that paid them less than the appraiser's ruling on the grounds that they did not purchase the parts through them, and demanded that they cancel the offsets.
Some have already canceled them, some cases are still under discussion.
So far, the new policy has been announced by Direct Insurance, Menorah and Phoenix, without declaring it in advance to the insured when they purchased the policy from them.
The companies claim that the insurance contracts allow them to do so without explicitly informing the insured at the time of purchase.
The companies also claim that they purchase the spare parts at a cheaper price than the garages charge them, thus reducing the cost of the repair at a time of rising spare parts prices.
However, no company has committed that the adoption of the requirement will allow it to lower the prices of the policies, or that they will not become more expensive this year as well.
The insurance companies claim that they purchase the parts at a cheaper price, but did not commit to discounting the policies in return (Photo: Nir Ben Tovim, Shutterstock)
The commissioner should soon publish new regulatory rules for the field, under which the companies will be required to notify the insured in advance of the adoption of such a policy, and the drivers will be able to choose companies or routes that will allow them to repair their vehicle at a private garage.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Transportation also came in opposition to the move in recent days.
In a document obtained by Walla, the director of the automotive division of the ministry, engineer Einat Segal, states that "this conduct has the potential to harm competitiveness in the industry and this harm may eventually reach the end customer as well", stated Segal.
The document was written following a request from the Garage Association.
However, the Ministry of Transportation is the body that supervises the garages, but the supervisory powers of the insurance companies are all given to the insurance commissioner at the Capital Market Authority.
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