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2019 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

Transparency in the Insurance Contract Law of Austria

verfasst von : Sebastian Wöss

Erschienen in: Transparency in Insurance Contract Law

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Transparency plays an important role in insurance law. However, this does not mean that transparency as a legal requirement only exists in this field. On the contrary, considerations and efforts to create (more) transparency are made in almost all fields of law. For example, legislation should be drafted transparently; state processes, e.g. the award of public contracts, should be designed in a transparent way. In general, the administration should act transparently. However, transparency has to be applied not only between the legislator respectively the public authorities and the legal subject respectively the citizens and taxpayers but also between private individuals: the customer should be provided with adequate information, depending on the specific situation. In addition, contracts or contractual clauses in particular shall be formulated in such a way that they are understandable and comprehensible to the parties involved. Transparency therefore serves to make processes comprehensible for the individual. As a rule, it is about compensating a gap between the parties involved in a concrete legal relationship. There may be several reasons for this gap: e.g. a knowledge or information advantage on one side, an unequal distribution of the available (financial) resources or an unequal position on the market. Frequently, a combination of several factors occurs. Adequate transparency is intended to compensate or at least to mitigate these discrepancies.

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Nächstes Kapitel Transparency in the Insurance Contract Law of Croatia
Fußnoten
1
Bdylinski (2015), p. 140 seqq.
 
2
Cf. the materials on the Austrian Federal Procurement Act 2006, BGBl. I 2006/17 (österreichisches Bundesvergabegesetz—BvergG 2006), 1171 BlgNR 22 GP. 5.
 
3
Cf. Art 15 TFEU.
 
4
See only the ‘information model’ pursued by the EU legislator to protect the consumer.
 
5
Cf. Art 5 para 1 Directive 93/13/EEC.
 
6
Leverenz (2008), para 3/55.
 
7
Stagl (2006), p. 4.
 
8
Schimikowski (2007), p. 135.
 
9
Dreher (1991), p. 148.
 
10
Cf. Wandt (2012), p. 343.
 
11
Wandt (2012), p. 343.
 
12
Wandt (2012), p. 343.
 
13
See e.g. the Solvency II Directive, of which the primary objective is—despite the fact that most of the standards are concerned with the regulation and supervision of the insurance and reinsurance industry—the protection of policyholders (recital no°16 Solvency II Directive).
 
14
Wandt (2012), p. 341.
 
15
BGBl I 2015/44.
 
16
Wandt (2012), p. 343.
 
17
Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, OJ n° L 095 of 21.04.1993.
 
18
BGBl 1979/140.
 
19
BGBl I 2004/62.
 
20
With the Distance Financial Service Act the Directive 2002/65/EC had been implemented into Austrian Law.
 
21
JGS 1811/946.
 
22
Wandt (2012), p. 343.
 
23
Heiss and Lorenz (2014) pre Article 16–22, para 4 seqq.
 
24
BGBl 1959/2.
 
25
Cf. Korinek (2016), p. 26.
 
26
See also the explanation of the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof—OGH)—in turn, however, to the transparency requirement of Art 6 para 3 Consumer Protection Act—to OGH 4 Ob 28/01y.
 
27
Wandt (2012), p. 343.
 
28
Fenyves (2007), p. 37.
 
29
Faber (2003), p. 51.
 
30
Fenyves (2014a) pre Article 1, para 106.
 
31
See only Baran and Peschetz (2015), p. 4.
 
32
Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 January 2016 on insurance distribution (recast), OJ n° L 26/19 of 02.02.2016 (IDD).
 
33
BGBl 1979/568.
 
34
dRGBl S 139.
 
35
dRGBl S 263.
 
36
This has historical reasons. Thus, both the German Insurance Supervisory Act 1901 and the German Insurance Contract Act 1908 were introduced in Austria in the course of the ‘Anschluss’ of Austria to the German Reich. After the war, both remained in force under different names and with slight changes. The fact is also worth to be mentioned because it can explain the still existing influence of German literature and jurisprudence on the Austrian insurance law (see also Fenyves 1997, p. 296).
 
37
BGBl 1994/651.
 
38
Cf. Schauer (2010), p. 195.
 
39
BGBl 1994/652.
 
40
BGBl 1994/509.
 
41
However, in the Austrian insurance supervisory law, provisions aimed at providing transparency in the relationship between the insurer and the policyholder are already based on the year 1939 and on the German Supervisory Act 1901 respectively (after the war) the (Austrian) Insurance Supervisory Act 1978. Thus, the German Supervisory Act 1901already contained the first requirements on the transparency of the insurance contract (Art 9 para 1 leg cit). The provision had listed some essential elements that the general policy conditions had to contain; e.g. a compulsory risk description, provisions on the duration of the insurance contract, the cases in which compulsory performance should be excluded or abolished etc.).
 
42
The provision was situated in Art 4 para 2 of the original version of the Insurance Supervisory Act 1978.
 
43
Until 1.4.2002, this was the Federal Ministry of Finance, since then the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finanzmarktaufsicht—FMA) (Art 1 para 1 Financial Market Supervisory Act, BGBl 2001/97 [Finanzmarktaufsichtsgesetz—FMAG] in conjunction with Art 268 para 1 and 2 Insurance Supervisory Act 2016).
 
44
Cf. Evermann (2002), p. 4.
 
45
To the following: Ertl (1997), p. 2 seqq.
 
46
‘Veröffentlichungen des BMF betreffend den Versicherungsvertrag’.
 
47
Evermann (2002), p. 4.
 
48
First directive 73/239/EEC, second directive RL 88/357/ EEC, third directive 92/49/ EEC (non-life insurance); first directive 79/267/ EEC, second directive 90/619/ EEC, third directive 92/96/EWG (life insurance).
 
49
EB 11.
 
50
For the comparable German situation Wandt (2012), p. 346.
 
51
The IDD has meanwhile, in relation to information requirements contained in the directive (Artt 17 seqq IDD), been partly implemented to the Insurance Supervisory Act 2016. Namely by the Insurance Distribution Law Amendment Act 2018 (Versicherungsvertriebsrechts-Änderungsgesetz 2018—VersVertrRÄG 2018), enacted on 1.10.2018.
 
52
Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II), OJ n° L 335/1 of 17.12.2009.
 
53
Based on Art 30 para 2 directive 92/49/ECC.
 
54
BGBl 1998/170.
 
55
See the materials of the Insurance Supervisory Act 2016 354 BlgNr 25 GP. 55 seqq.
 
56
Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 85/577/EEC and Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Consumer Protection Directive), OJ n° L 304/64 of 22.11.2011.
 
57
Directive 93/13/EEC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, OJ n° L 95/29 of 24.04.1993.
 
58
See also Korinek (2016), p. 25.
 
59
Cf. Rudy (2015), Art 7, para 2.
 
60
Cf. Schauer (2005), p. 158.
 
61
Cf. also the materials on the Insurance Distribution Law Amendment Act 2018, 26 BlgNR 26 GP. 4 seqq.
 
62
Before, advisory duties existed only according Art 254 Insurance Supervisory Act 2016, which required insurance undertakings to provide investor and property-specific advice on the sale of unit-linked and index-linked life insurance contracts. In addition, there were and still are situation-dependent information and advisory duties under general civil law (see below Sect. 3.3.1.3).
 
63
Cf. Böhm (2018), p. 1068.
 
64
The provision shows systematic similarities with the transparency requirement of Art 6 para 3 Consumer Protection Act (Kronthaler 2016a, p. 166). Both are about representation. The difference is however that Art 252 para 8 Insurance Supervisory Act 2016 means the representation of information, while Art 6 para 3 Consumer Protection Act means the representation of contact terms. (For the different legal consequences, see below respectively point Sect. 3.3.3.4).
 
65
Leitner (2005), p. 52.
 
66
Art 128a para 2 no° 2 and 3 Insurance Supervisory Act 2016 also apply if the information is not provided on paper but on a durable medium or on a website.
 
67
The information must be provided to the policyholder before the demand analysis (see above Sect. Pre-contractual Information Duties).
 
68
This information must be provided before submitting policyholder’s declaration of the contract.
 
69
Cf. Kronthaler (2016b), p. 231.
 
70
Insofar as the policyholder is a consumer, the Insurance Contract Act allows him to withdraw from the insurance contract or his contract declaration without any reason within 14 days (Art 5c para 1 Insurance Contract Act). Also in this case, too, an in time transmission shall be sufficient—despite the fact that no explicit mention is made in Art 5c Insurance Contract Act (Fenyves 2014b, Art 5c, para 6). The right to withdraw the contract pursuant to Art 5c Insurance Contract Act expires 1 month after the receipt of the insurance policy and the information on the right of the withdrawal at the latest. As long as the insurer does not inform the policyholder of his right of withdrawal, the withdrawal period is not subject to the statute of limitations. In this respect, a right of withdrawal is also conceivable here (Kronthaler 2016b, p. 227).
 
71
This is the ruling, though not undisputed, view, cf. Kronthaler (2016b), p. 227.
 
72
Cf. Kronthaler (2016a), p. 167.
 
73
Cf. only Graf 2015a, Art 3, para 8.
 
74
Thus, Art 5a of the Consumer Protection Act as well as Artt 4 seqq of the Remote and External Business Act (Fern- und Auswärtsgeschäfte Gesetz—FAGG [BGBl I 2014/33]) which stipulate certain information duties for each b2c-contract respectively for that one concluded in the distance or in the case of a foreign business, are expressis verbis not applicable (Art 5a para 2 no° 6 Consumer Protection Act or Art 1 para 2 no° 5 Remote and External Business Act).
 
75
Cf. Kronthaler (2016a), p. 167.
 
76
See Graf (2015a), Art 3, para 1 seqq.
 
77
Graf (2015a, b), Art 5, para 4 seqq.
 
78
For life insurances as defined in Directive 2002/83/EC on life assurance, OJ no° L 345 v 19.12.2002 it is 30 days (Art 8 para 2 Distance Financial Services Act).
 
79
OGH 2 Ob 151/02y.
 
80
OGH 5 Ob 524/79.
 
81
Fenyves (2009), p. 19.
 
82
OGH 7 Ob 9/94, OGH 7 Ob 20/14p.
 
83
Fenyves (2009), p. 20.
 
84
See only Fenyves (2009), p. 20, following OGH 7 Ob 20/14p.
 
85
Fenyves (2009), p. 19.
 
86
OGH 7 Ob 72/11f.
 
87
SZ 62/157.
 
88
OGH 7 Ob 9/94.
 
89
Wiebe (2015), Art 861, para 31.
 
90
Cf Wiebe (2015), Art 861, para 50.
 
91
Heiss and Lorenz (2014) pre Article 16–22, para 4.
 
92
Cf. Heiss and Lorenz (2014) pre Article 16–22, para 13.
 
93
See also OGH 7 Ob 266/02x.
 
94
OGH 7 Ob 250/06z.
 
95
OGH 7 Ob 18/91.
 
96
OGH 7 Ob 170/13w.
 
97
OGH 7 Ob 17/86.
 
98
See Heiss and Lorenz (2014) Article 16–17, para 8.
 
99
OGH 7 Ob 60/87.
 
100
OGH 7 Ob 52/86.
 
101
Schauer (1995), p. 108
 
102
Heiss and Lorenz (2014) Article 16–17, para 20.
 
103
However, in this case the insurer has an exceptional right to increase the premium (Art 41 para 1 Insurance Contract Act).
 
104
See Heiss and Lorenz (2014) Article 16–17, para 59.
 
105
Cf. Stagl (2006), p. 4 seqq.
 
106
Graf (2015b), Art 879 para 14 seqq.
 
107
To the legal policy justification of the special requirements related to Austrian insurance law Stagl (2006), p. 6 seqq.
 
108
Riedler (2015), Art 864a, para 32.
 
109
To the following Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 48 seqq.
 
110
Riedler (2015), Art 864a, para 35.
 
111
Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 49.
 
112
Cf. OGH 7 Ob 201/12b.
 
113
OGH 7 Ob 216/11f.
 
114
OGH 7 Ob 194/11x.
 
115
OGH 7 Ob 250/07a.
 
116
OGH 7 Ob 18/00y.
 
117
OGH 7 Ob 12/90.
 
118
To the following Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 52 seqq.
 
119
Schauer (1995), p. 86.
 
120
Riedler (2015), Art 864a, para 35.
 
121
Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 54; OGH 7 Ob 22/10a.
 
122
OGH 8 Ob 85/13b.
 
123
OGH 8 Ob 85/13b.
 
124
See only Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 62 seqq.
 
125
Graf (2015b), Art 879 para 279.
 
126
Fenyves (1998), p. 364.
 
127
Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 69.
 
128
Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 71.
 
129
Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 73.
 
130
OGH 7 Ob 2137/96g.
 
131
Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 73.
 
132
Cf. OGH 7 Ob 15/92.
 
133
OGH 6 Ob 507/95.
 
134
Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 90.
 
135
ECJ C-618/10, (Banco Español de Crédito SA/Joaquin Calderon Camino); OGH 2 Ob 22/12 t.
 
136
Rummel (2014), Art 914, para 20.
 
137
Cf. Faber (2003), p. 37.
 
138
See the leading decision OGH 4 Ob 28/01y; see also EuGH C-96/14 (Jean-Claude Van Hove/CNP Assurances SA).
 
139
OGH 7 Ob 216/05y.
 
140
See only Fenyves (2014a), pre Art 1, para 115.
 
141
OGH 10 Ob 67/06k.
 
142
Korinek (1999), p. 159.
 
143
Cf. only Faber (2003), p. 39.
 
144
ECJ C-618/10, (Banco Español de Crédito SA/Joaquin Calderon Camino); OGH 2 Ob 22/12 t.
 
145
This is especially the case if the policyholder is a private individual.
 
146
Cf. Kalss (2015), pp. 8 seqq. 11, 20 seqq.
 
147
Cf. Wandt (2012), p. 353.
 
148
Kalss (2015), p. 8.
 
149
Cf. Korinek (2016), p. 25.
 
150
Cf. also Kalss (2015), pp. 8 seqq. 11, 20 seqq.
 
151
See Art 29 para 1 Consumer Protection Act.
 
152
Cf e.g. OGH 7 Ob 131/06z; OGH 7 Ob 82/07w; OGH 7 Ob 201/12b; OGH 7 Ob 216/11g.
 
153
Cf. Heiss (2009), p. 25, p. 27; see also Principles of European Insurance Contract Law Art 2:101 para 1.
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Transparency in the Insurance Contract Law of Austria
verfasst von
Sebastian Wöss
Copyright-Jahr
2019
Verlag
Springer International Publishing
Buch
Transparency in Insurance Contract Law

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-31197-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-31198-8

Copyright-Jahr: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31198-8_1