IVASS launches a public consultation on the insurance arbitrator
On 6 March 2025, the Italian Insurance Regulatory Authority ("IVASS") launched the public consultation on the draft of the technical and implementing provisions (the "Consultation Document" no. 1/2025) referred to in Article 13 of the Decree of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy no. 215 of 6 November 2024 (the "Regulation").
As is well known, the Regulation disciplines the institution of the Insurance Arbitrator (the "Insurance Arbitrator"), i.e., the out-of-court dispute resolution system already provided for in the Italian Consumer Code and the Italian Code of Private Insurance.
The Regulation was scheduled to come into force on January 24, 2025.
However, the actual operability of the Insurance Arbitrator is subject to the publication of the technical and implementing provisions that the Regulation entrusted IVASS to publish within four months of the entry into force of the Regulation, i.e., the Consultation Document that the Authority put out for consultation.
The Insurance Arbitrator's institution's aim is that of expanding the range of individual protection tools available to customers and guaranteeing insurance service consumers the same means of protection enjoyed by users of banking and financial services.
In general, according to the system dictated by the Regulation, recourse to the Insurance Arbitrator is characterized as a system for resolving disputes with insurance companies and/or intermediaries that is agile and can be activated directly by the client, without the necessary assistance of a lawyer and with minimal costs.
Furthermore, the entire process is digitalized. In fact, a dedicated computer system and website will be created, with benefits in terms of time and efficiency of the entire Insurance Arbitrator procedure.
The Consultation Document is divided into nine paragraphs, below is a summary of the main provisions for your consultation:
It is provided that insurance undertakings and intermediaries join the Insurance Arbitrator without the need for special notices. However, ?insurance and reinsurance undertakings?and intermediaries operating in Italy under the freedom to provide services regime which do not adhere to the Insurance Arbitrator system (because they have already joined a similar scheme in their home country under Fin.Net network), are required to notify IVASS (by 30 July 2025 to the following email address: [email protected]) indicating the out-of-court dispute resolution system to which they adhere.
Insurance companies and intermediaries starting to operate in Italy under the freedom to provide services after the entry into force of the Consultation Document in its final form which do not intend to join the Insurance Arbitrator shall notify IVASS within forty-five days from the date they begin operating, using the same procedures.
Any changes made with respect to the information provided shall be promptly communicated to IVASS.
Finally, IVASS requires that insurance undertakings and intermediaries provide the Authority with a contact person for the management of appeals and the electronic means of communication used for liaise with the Insurance Arbitrator (for example Registered Electronic Mail).
The Regulation delegated IVASS the issuing of indications regarding the procedure for selecting some of the members of the Insurance Arbitrator.
In this regard, the paragraph in question regulates that IVASS publishes a notice on its website and on that of the Insurance Arbitrator containing the methods and terms for the presentation of applications, requesting that candidates fill in a form certifying that they meet the requirements of integrity, professionalism and independence governed by the Regulation.
For the purposes of selecting the panel for the Insurance Arbitrator to start operating, the notice containing the procedures and deadlines for submitting applications will be published only on the IVASS website if the Insurance Arbitrator's website is not yet online.
Paragraph 4 of the Consultation Document regulates the technical and operational procedures for conducting Insurance Arbitrator meetings, defining, in accordance with the framework outlined by the Regulation, the relative operational rules in order to guarantee the efficient conduct of the procedure.
?
A great deal of attention is paid to cases in which it becomes necessary to replace a member of the Insurance Arbitrator panel with the corresponding alternate member due to incompatibility, impediment or conflict of interest, in order to guarantee the continuity of the Arbitrators' functions and operations.
In order to simplify the procedures, meetings are to be convened online.
In accordance with the functions assigned to the Chairman of an Insurance Arbitrator' panel by the Regulation, this paragraph details its tasks and activities in order to guarantee the functionality of the panel and the regular progress of the proceedings.
The operating procedures of the panel and the obligations of its members are instead governed by organizational regulations and the Code of Ethics, which will be published on the official website of the Insurance Arbitrator.
In order to guarantee the full exercise of the right of defense of the parties involved in the proceedings, the terms for the conduct and conclusion of the proceedings before the Insurance Arbitrator, provided for by the Regulation and this Consultation Document, are suspended for thirty days starting from 1st August of each year.
This paragraph clarifies that on the Insurance Arbitrator website there will be a portal for the presentation of the appeal whose user guide, which illustrates the main stages of the procedure, is also going to be published on the Insurance Arbitrator website.
Customers can appeal to the Insurance Arbitrator against insurance undertakings and/or intermediaries. In particular, the appeal is presented directly against the following subjects:
The insurance undertaking or intermediary directly concerned by the appeal, in order to guarantee the right to be heard, shall send the appeal and any reply briefs to the intermediaries registered in sections C) or E) involved in the dispute, and shall obtain from them all relevant documentation, as well as their defense with respect to the matter subject to the appeal.
The documents obtained in this way are sent to the technical secretariat of the Insurance Arbitrator by the company or intermediary directly involved in the appeal; they must provide proof that they have taken action if they have not been able to contact the parties involved in the dispute or if the latter have not provided information.
If there are distinct and specific reasons for complaint against a company and one of the intermediaries referred to in the numbered list above, the appeal may be addressed to both, provided that a prior complaint has been submitted to each.
If the insurance undertaking company or intermediary is a member of a trade association or other relevant association, the preliminary documents may be forwarded to the secretariat of the Insurance Arbitrator by the aforementioned associations, provided that the adversarial procedure indicated above is guaranteed.
The Regulation delegated to IVASS the definition of the fulfilments following the decision of the Insurance Arbitrator.
In this regard, in the paragraph in question, the Authority specifies that the communication of the execution of the decision to be sent to the technical secretariat of the Insurance Arbitrator within 5 days of the effective execution of the decision by the company or insurance intermediary can also be carried out through trade associations.
Moreover, each party may request the correction of mere material or calculation errors contained in the decision.
Finally, the Consultation Document provides for the publication of the most relevant decisions adopted by the Insurance Arbitrator on its website. This form of publicity will allow companies and intermediaries to evaluate the complaints they receive, also in light of the guidelines expressed by the main arbitration decisions. At the same time, the trends that can be inferred from the outcomes of the appeals will expand the information available to IVASS with reference to the complaints.
In accordance with the provisions of the Regulations, non-compliance by the company or intermediary with the decisions taken by the Insurance Arbitrator is made public in a specific section of the Insurance Arbitrator's website for a period of five years.
Within fifteen days of publication on the Insurance Arbitrator's website, the company or intermediary shall in turn publicize it for six months in a specific section of the home page of its own website.
Notwithstanding the above, the Consultation Document specify that further operating procedures may be made known on the Insurance Arbitrator's institutional website.
This last paragraph contains some indications regarding the date of entry into force of the provisions summarized above.
In particular, IVASS provides that the provisions in paragraphs 2 and 3 apply from the date of adoption of the Consultation Document, while the remaining provisions apply from the date of entry in force of the Insurance Arbitrator, as declared by IVASS in a provision that is going to be published on its website.
The public consultation on the Consultation Document will close on 5 April 2025.
IVASS invites to submit any observations, comments and proposals to the following email address: [email protected] using the table available at the following link: https://www.ivass.it/normativa/nazionale/secondaria-ivass/pubb-cons/2025/01-pc/index.html to be completed in word format.
The Consultation Document no. 1/2025 is available, only in Italian, at the following link: https://www.ivass.it/normativa/nazionale/secondaria-ivass/pubb-cons/2025/01-pc/Documento_di_consultazione_n.1-2025.pdf