The Competition Markets Authority (CMA) has fined ComparetheMarket £17.9m after it found that clauses used in the comparison site’s contracts with home insurers breached competition law.

The investigation by the CMA found that the comparison website breached the law by imposing wide ‘most favoured nation’ clauses on providers of home insurance selling through its platform between December 2015 and December 2017.

These clauses prohibited the insurers from offering lower prices on other comparison websites which made it harder for its rivals to challenge the company’s strong market position.

The CMA found that as a result, competition between price comparison websites and home insurers was restricted, and consumers are likely to have faced higher premiums as a result.

ComparetheMarket stopped enforcing these clauses when the CMA launched its investigation in November 2017.

ComparetheMarket is owned by BGL Group.