The Competition Tribunal dismissed a lawsuit by the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office against the private health insurers (ISAPRES) ING S.A., Colmena Golden Cross S.A., Banmédica S.A., Vida Tres S.A. and Conslud, for allegedly colluding to lower coverage in their health insurance plans, from 100% for inpatient and 90% for outpatient procedures, to 90% and 70% respectively.
The Tribunal, analyzing all the evidence in this ruling, considered that even though a parallel behavior was established between four of the defendants –Colmena, ING, Banmédica and Vida Tres-, and that parallelism could have been caused by an agreement between them, it was not completely convinced that this was the case. Therefore, the Tribunal concluded that there was not enough evidence in this case, in order to consider an agreement as proven. Consequently, the lawsuit was dismissed, as well as the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office contributory third parties, who presented identical reasons as said Office in Tribunal.