Article 7 (1) (f) of Directive 88/357/EEC shall be replaced by the following:
‘in the case of the risks referred to in Article 5 (d) of Directive 73/239/EEC, the parties to the contract may choose any law.’
The Member State in which a risk is situated shall not prevent a policyholder from concluding a contract with an insurance undertaking authorized under the conditions of Article 6 of Directive 73/239/EEC, as long as that does not conflict with legal provisions protecting the general good in the Member State in which the risk is situated.
Member States shall not adopt provisions requiring the prior approval or systematic notification of general and special policy conditions, scales of premiums, or forms and other printed documents which an insurance undertaking intends to use in its dealings with policy-holders. They may only require non-systematic notification of those policy conditions and other documents for the purpose of verifying compliance with national provisions concerning insurance contracts, and that requirement may not constitute a prior condition for an undertaking's carrying on its business.
Member States may not retain or introduce prior notification or approval of proposed increases in premium rates except as part of general price-control systems.
1.Article 8 (4) (b) of Directive 88/357/EEC shall be deleted. Article 8 (4) (a) of that Directive shall therefore be amended to read as follows:
‘Subject to subparagraph (c), the third subparagraph of Article 7 (2) shall apply where the insurance contract provides cover in two or more Member States, at least one of which makes insurance compulsory.’
2.Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, a Member State which makes insurance compulsory may require that the general and special conditions of the compulsory insurance be communicated to its competent authority before being circulated.
1.Before an insurance contract is concluded the insurance undertaking shall inform the policyholder of:
the law applicable to the contract where the parties do not have a free choice, or the fact that the parties are free to choose the law applicable and, in the latter case, the law the insurer proposes to choose,
the arrangements for handling policyholders' complaints concerning contracts including, where appropriate, the existence of a complaints body, without prejudice to the policyholders's right to take legal proceedings.
2.The obligation referred to in paragraph 1 shall apply only where the policyholder is a natural person.
3.The rules for implementing this Article shall be determined in accordance with the law of the Member State in which the risk is situated.