Article 18 of Directive 88/357/EEC is hereby repealed.

The Member State of the branch or of the provision of services 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 undertaking intends to use in its dealings with policyholders. It may only require an undertaking that proposes to carry on insurance business within its territory, under the right of establishment or the freedom to provide services, to effect non-systematic notification ot those policy conditions and other documents for the purpose of verifying compliance with its national provisions concerning insurance contracts, and that requirement may not constitute a prior condition for an undertaking's carrying on its business.

The Member State of the branch or of the provision of services may not retain or introduce prior notification or approval of proposed increases in premium rates except as part of general price-control systems.

Article 19 of Directive 88/357/EEC is hereby repealed.

Any undertaking carrying on business under the right of establishment or the freedom to provide services shall submit to the competent authorities of the Member State of the branch and/or of the Member State of the provision of services all documents requested of it for the purposes of this Article in so far as undertakings with head offices in those Member States are also obliged to do so.

If the competent authorities of a Member State establish that an undertaking with a branch or carrying on business under the freedom to provide services within its territory is not complying with the legal provisions applicable to it in that State, they shall require the undertaking concerned to remedy that irregular situation.

If the undertaking in question fails to take the necessary action, the competent authorities of the Member State concerned shall inform the competent authorities of the home Member State accordingly. The latter authorities shall, at the earliest opportunity, take all appropriate measures to ensure that the undertaking concerned remedies that irregular situation. The nature of those measures shall be communicated to the competent authorities of the Member State concerned.

If, despite the measures taken by the home Member State or because those measures prove inadequate or are lacking in that State, the undertaking persists in infringing the legal provisions in force in the Member State concerned, the latter may, after informing the competent authorities of the home Member State, take appropriate measures to prevent or penalize further infringements, including, in so far as is strictly necessary, preventing that undertaking from continuing to conclude new insurance contracts within its territory. Member States shall ensure that within their territories it is possible to serve the legal documents necessary for such measures on insurance undertakings.

Paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 shall not affect the emergency power of the Member States concerned to take appropriate measures to prevent irregularities within their territories. This shall include the possibility of preventing insurance undertakings from continuing to conclude new insurance contracts within their territories.

Paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 shall not affect the powers of the Member States to penalize infringements within their territories.

If an undertaking which has committed an infringement has an establishment or possesses property in the Member State concerned, the competent authorities of the latter may, in accordance with national law, apply the administrative penalties prescribed for that infringement by way of enforcement against that establishment or property.

Any measure adopted under paragraphs 4 to 8 involving penalties or restrictions on the conduct of insurance business must be properly reasoned and communicated to the undertaking concerned.

Every two years, the Commission shall F1inform the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Committee of the number and types of cases in which, in each Member State, authorization has been refused under Article 10 of Directive 73/239/EEC or Article 16 of Directive 88/357/EEC as amended by this Directive or measures have been taken under paragraph 5. Member States shall cooperate with the Commission by providing it with the information required for that report.

Article 20 of Directive 88/357/EEC is hereby repealed.

In the event of an insurance undertaking's being wound up, commitments arising out of contracts underwritten through a branch or under the freedom to provide services shall be met in the same way as those arising out of that undertaking's other insurance contracts, without distinction as to nationality as far as the persons insured and the beneficiaries are concerned.

Article 21 of Directive 88/357/EEC is hereby repealed.

Where insurance is offered unter the right of establishment or the freedom to provide services, the policyholder shall, before any commitment is entered into, be informed of the Member State in which the head office or, where appropriate, the branch with which the contract is to be concluded is situated.

Any documents issued to the policyholder must convey the information referred to in the first subparagraph.

The obligations imposed in the first two subparagraphs shall not apply to the risks referred to in Article 5 (d) of Directive 73/239/EEC.

The contract or any other document granting cover, together with the insurance proposal where it is binding upon the policyholder, must state the address of the head office, or, where appropriate, of the branch of the insurance undertaking which grants the cover.

Each Member State may require that the name and address of the representative of the insurance undertaking referred to in Article 12 a (4) of Directive 88/357/EEC also appear in the documents referred to in the first subparagraph.

Article 22 of Directive 88/357/EEC is hereby repealed.

Every insurance undertaking shall inform the competent authority of its home Member State, separately in respect of transactions carried out under the right of establishment and those carried out under the freedom to provide services, of the amount of the premiums, claims and commissions, without deduction of reinsurance, by Member State and by group of classes, and also as regards class 10 of point A of the Annex to Directive 73/239/EEC, not including carrier's liability, the frequency and average cost of claims.

The groups of classes are hereby defined as follows:

• accident and sickness (classes 1 and 2),

• motor (classes 3, 7 and 10, the figures for class 10, excluding carriers' liability, being given separately),

• fire and other damage to property (classes 8 and 9),

• aviation, marine and transport (classes 4, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 12),

• general liability (class 13),

• credit and suretyship (classes 14 and 15),

• other classes (classes 16, 17 and 18).

The competent authority of the home Member State shall forward that information within a reasonable time and in aggregate form to the competent authorities of each of the Member States concerned which so request.

Article 24 of Directive 88/357/EEC is hereby repealed.

Nothing in this Directive shall affect the Member States' right to require undertakings carrying on business within their territories under the right of establishment or the freedom to provide services to join and participate, on the same terms as undertakings authorized there, in any scheme designed to guarantee the payment of insurance claims to insured persons and injured third parties.

Article 25 of Directive 88/357/EEC is hereby repealed.

Without prejudice to any subsequent harmonization, every insurance contract shall be subject exclusively to the indirect taxes and parafiscal charges on insurance premiums in the Member State in which the risk is situated as defined in Article 2 (d) of Directive 88/357/EEC, and also, in the case of Spain, to the surcharges legally established in favour of the Spanish ‘Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros’ for the performance of its functions relating to the compensation of losses arising from extraordinary events occurring in that Member State.

In derogation from the first indent of Article 2 (d) of Directive 88/357/EEC, and for the purposes of this paragraph, moveable property contained in a building situated within the territory of a Member State, except for goods in commercial transit, shall be a risk situated in that Member State, even if the building and its contents are not covered by the same insurance policy.

The law applicable to the contract under Article 7 of Directive 88/357/EEC shall not affect the fiscal arrangements applicable.

Pending future harmonization, each Member State shall apply to those undertakings which cover risks situated within its territory its own national provisions to ensure the collection of indirect taxes and parafiscal charges due under the first subparagraph.