Die Geschäftsleiterkontrolle im Versicherungsaufsichtsrecht

The material risks, which can derive from insurance companies, legitimate the severe limitation of the insurance company manager’s constitutional right of the freedom of work. The reliability in insurance company managers is basically assumed. It can regularly only dispensed with a qualified infringement of law, not by a decline in moral standards. In this context the eligibility of infringements has to be detected by a valuation. Therefore the criteria besides the whole purpose of the German Insurance Supervision Act (VAG) are met in: The gravity of the offence, the reference to the occupation, frequency, the future comportment as well as the time lapse. Business judgements are categoricaly not approachable to the supervision of reliability.     

Die Akzeptanz von Versicherungsdienstleistungen im Internet

There is not much known about the factors that determine online demand for insurances. This current study is a first attempt to locate the variables that affect the acceptance of online-purchase of an insurance policy from existing research and empirically verify them. Results show that good terms coupled with online purchase-experience is the most important cause for acceptance. Additionally, convenience (i.e., easy access to information through internet sites of insurance companies and easy and fast contracting), perceived barriers when transferring from a traditional insurance contract to an ?online contract“, information quality of the internet offer, perceived personal risk as well as perceived transaction risk are significant factors driving online demand for insurances.     

Umwelthaftung, Umwelthaftpflichtversicherung und Umweltschutz

It is accepted in jurisprudence that liability has — as a side-effect — the aim to prevent damages, but up to now there has been no scientific proof that it works. There is no dispute that liability in tort is suitable for prevention, some approaches making cuts on the suitability of strict liability for this purpose. If liability insurance coverage is reasonable it is advantageous to the environment. German pollution liability coverage conditions at least provide adequate avenues: The insured is urged to present a risk index which is important for a risk analysis relevant to the current situation. The duty to give notice of claim and to acquire instructions from the insurer can help to minimize damage. The insurer has the right to ask the insured to improve his precautions. It would also deter environmental hazards if minor pollution which does not result unexpectedley or accidentally as well as misfeasance is excluded. The inclusion clause for such pollution and for developmental risks is not effective if the insured does maintain high safety and prevention standards. However it is counterproductive that, in the insurer’s understanding, salvage costs are not covered and at the same time they are not included in the environmental liability coverage.     

Die Marktabgrenzung im Versicherungskartellrecht am Beispiel der Berufshaftpflichtversicherungen

The definition of the relevant market is crucial to the application of European and German competition law and especially difficult when dealing with insurance markets. Generally, the product and geographic market comprises all products or services that are regarded as substitutable by consumers. In addition, the supply-side substitutability can be taken into consideration. In defining insurance product markets, the supply-side substitutability is decisive, because insurance products are seldom interchangeable from a policy holder’s point of view. Applying the concept of supply-side substitutability to professional indemnity insurances leads to product markets correlating with the different professional groups: Indemnity insurances for physicians constitute a product market; insurances for lawyers, notary publics, tax advisers and public accountants form another market and insurances for architects and construction engineers another one. These product markets are still national markets. Professional indemnity insurances are extensively shaped by the differing legal systems, namely by national insurance contract law, by liability provisions and by a legal obligation to insure. Consequently, policy holders cannot substitute their indemnity insurance with foreign insurance products and insurers are confronted with market entry barriers. However, the proposed directive on services on the internal market and the adopted directive on insurance mediation could result in community-wide markets in the near future.     

Die Mitgliedschaft EG-ausländischer Versicherungsunternehmen im Sicherungsfond der Lebens- und Krankenversicherung

The present regulation of the German guarantee funds for life and health insurance offers no possibility for insurance enterprises from other memberstates of the EC to become a member of these funds. Whereas an obligatory membership for EC-foreign insurance enterprises would violate the single-license-principle for financial supervision in the EC, community law requires a possibility to become a member of the German guarantee funds on a voluntary basis. The absence of the possibility of such a voluntary membership in the German insurance supervision law leads to an inadmissible restriction of the fundamental economic freedom rights of the common market. Therefore, the German legislator has to add the possibility of a voluntary membership to his national regulation of the guarantee funds to secure an undistorted competition on the common market for insurance in the EC.