Brussels, 29/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Holders of life assurance policies are entitled to be informed of the scale of the costs deducted by the insurer in respect of the death risk cover, on condition that this additional information requirement is necessary and foreseeable, said the Court of Justice of the EU in a ruling (case C-51/13) handed down on Wednesday 29 April.
In 1999, a Dutch national took out life assurance with a Dutch company, the end-date accumulated value of which was not guaranteed but depended on the results of investments. It guaranteed payment of a fixed capital should the policyholder die before the end of the contract. Believing that he had not been given sufficient prior information of the costs related to death risk cover, the policyholder took his case to the courts. The Dutch court found in his favour, taking the view that the failure to provide that information, although not specifically required by the life assurance directive (92/96/EEC), infringed the “open and/or unwritten rules” of Netherlands law which include, in this case, the duty of care of the insurance company and pre-contractual good faith.
According to the Court of Justice, a member state may, on the basis of the characteristics of its legal order, put in place an obligation to provide additional pre-contractual information where such information is necessary for proper understanding of an assurance contract. This obligation must also be sufficiently foreseeable to allow insurers to know what additional information they must provide and which the policyholder may expect. (Mathieu Bion)