온라인 플랫폼의 보험상품 비교·추천 서비스에 대한 연구

A study on insurance product comparison and recommendation services on online platforms: Focusing on the UKʼs online insurance product comparison service

The online insurance product comparison and recommendation service is a new sales method that changes from the existing face-to-face sales method of insurance agencies to an online service. In addition, large online platform companies such as Naver Pay, Kakao Pay, and Toss are also trying to enter new businesses. The online platformʼs entry into the insurance industry has advantages such as innovation in the insurance market due to increased competition, expansion of consumer accessibility and choice, and customer satisfaction through provision of customized services. On the other hand, there are disadvantages such as heated competition between platform companies and insurance companies, commission issues, financial alienation issues, and monopoly by a few dominant platforms. The main purpose of financial authorities introducing this service is to increase consumer convenience, so the service should be operated and regulated in a way that ensures maximum consumer interest and protection. In the case of the EU and UK, it is clarified that acts such as comparing insurance products and providing information using media such as the Internet correspond to “insurance sales” through “insurance Distribution Directive,” and non-insurance companies are required to register as insurance brokers to sell insurance. In addition, we regularly evaluate the impact of the spread of insurance price comparison sites on the insurance industry and continuously announce system improvement plans to correct problems occurring in the recruitment market. It is necessary for Korean financial authorities to identify problems with price comparison websites occurring in the UK and preemptively prepare guidelines or clear regulatory standards for compliance and prohibitions of comparative service providers. Lastly, it is necessary to carefully consider allowing Big Tech to enter the insurance industry after monitoring cases such as those in the UK and establishing regulations to offset risks to some extent.