Danish PKA and Danica violates competition regulations with collaboration

PKA and Danica Pension have been reported to the authorities for violating the regulations for competition after cooperating to win a pensions mandate.

Earlier this year, PKA and Danica Pension entered a partnership to produce a pension solution for businesses to win a specific mandate.

The Danish watchdog Konkurrence- og Forbrugerstyrelsen has now reported the two giants to the financial crimes police, SØIK, from which PKA and Danica expect a charge soon.

According to a press release from PKA, the partnership meant that PKA would make an offer to cover pensioners who are part of trade union HK, while Danica made an offer for the leader’s pensions.

PKA director of members Thomas Frydenberg, said in a statement that PKA has been open with its members, the public and the authorities on the production partnership throughout the process.

Frydenberg said: “We are naturally very frustrated about this. If we have overstepped the regulations for competition it would in no way be an intentional act. On the contrary, from the beginning our evaluation has been that it has been completely legal to issue a joint offer.”

“We have at no point tried to hide that we issued a joint offer with Danica, neither from the public or from our customers,” he said.

Danica said in a statement that it is improving its procedures through an internal evaluation as a result of the alleged violation.

“At Danica Pension we want as strong competition in the pensions market as possible. That is why it is highly regrettable that sufficient attention has not been paid to the competition framework,” chairman of the board at Danica Pensions Jacob Aarup-Andersen said.

As Danica has briefed the authorities and filed an application for a penalty, it expects to be acquitted of any charges.

PKA has filed all relevant documents to SØIK and will collaborate openly throughout the investigation. It has not yet decided how it will handle a charge.

“We decided to enter the cooperation with Danica because the customer sought partial offers and because we thought [PKA] and Danica were not considered competitors in this,” Frydenberg said.

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