Motor Insurance Directive (MID)

The Directive amending the Motor Insurance Directive (MID) was published in the OJ of the EU in December 2021.

BIPAR's key priorities regarding this file were the following:

- Motor third party liability insurance should be required at European level for vehicles being used only in traffic.

- A compulsory requirement for price comparison tools should not be intro­duced in the Motor Insurance Directive.

State of play

2021 MID

Member States must implement the MID by 23 December 2023.  The main features of the Directive are:

  • Motor insurance comparison tools: Member States may choose to certify tools which enable customers, free of charge, to compare prices, tariffs and coverage between providers of motor third party liability insurance which comply with the conditions set out in MID;
  • Exclusion of light electric motorsport vehicles from the obligation to obtain insurance cover;
  • Vehicles used exclusively on areas with restricted access: Member States may make limited derogations from the obligation to obtain insurance cover in respect of restricted areas to which unauthorised persons should not enter;
  • Compensation in case of insolvency of insurance undertakings: Member States shall set up bodies to ensure that, if the insurance undertaking of a vehicle responsible for an accident is insolvent, injured parties can be compensated in their Member State of residence, even when the accident occurred in another Member State;
  • Claims-history statement: the content and format of claims-history statements is harmonised. Insurance undertakings shall treat a statement from another Member State as equal to a domestic statement.

 

EU Court of Justice on direct action against the insurer and extra-contractual rules in motor incidents

The Court of Justice issued on 30 March 2023 a judgment in the case of “AR & Others v PK SA & Others” (C-618/21) related to the conformity of Polish law with the 2009 MID. The case focused on the injured party’s direct right to action against the insurance undertaking under Article 18 MID. The CJEU found that:

  • Article 18 of the MID does not preclude national legislations from providing that the only method for obtaining redress directly from the insurer is monetary compensation.
  • Member States are, in principle, free to determine the rules of civil liability regarding road incidents.
  • However, national law cannot deprive EU legislation from its effectiveness. In the case of the MID, this means national law cannot automatically exclude or disproportionately limit the victim’s right to compensation.
  • The payment of the insured benefit to the injured party by the insurance undertaking can only be subject to the conditions laid down in the contract.

 

According to the CJEU’s ruling, the MID, therefore, precludes extra-contractual rules for the calculation of compensation and conditions relating to its payment insofar as they would, in the context of a direct action against the insurance undertaking, exclude or disproportionately limit the insurer’s obligation to cover all the compensation it has to provide to the injured party.

BIPAR’s position/key messages

BIPAR was not in favour of introducing a reference in the 2021 MID to only one type of insurance distributor (comparison tools) as this could trigger competition issues and create an unlevel playing field in the intermediation sector. BIPAR is monitoring the implementation of this provision and its impact on our sector.

Next steps

The 2021 MID must be transposed by Member States into their national legislation by 23 December 2023.