Insurance Arbitrator: a new alternative dispute resolution tool for the insurance disputes
Following the publication of MIMIT (i.e., Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy) Decree No. 215/2024 in Official Gazette. No. 6 of 9/1/2025, the Insurance Arbitrator ("AAS") was finally established within IVASS (i.e., Italian Insurance Supervisor Authority).
Based on similar procedures in the banking (ABF) and financial (ACS) sectors, the new ADR procedure is intended to pursue a policy of reducing litigation in the insurance sector by offering the possibility of resolving disputes quickly and at a lower cost.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE AAS
The AAS has authority over the following disputes:
- arising from an insurance contract, for the establishment of rights, including rights of compensation, obligations and entitlements relating to insurance benefits/services or for non-compliance with rules of conduct in insurancedistribution
- provided that they are purely documentary (expert opinions and testimonies are excluded)
- with the exception of claims managed by the Guarantee Fund for Hunting and Traffic Accidents, which are the responsibility of CONSAP, or those relating to large risks
- whose value does not exceed the following amounts
- for disputes relating to life insurance contracts
- € 300,000 for disputes concerning human life insurance contracts (Branch I) and benefits payable in the event of death
- € 150,000 in all other cases
b. for disputes relating to non-life insurance contracts
- € 2,500 if the dispute concerns a civil liability claim brought by an injured party directly against the insurer of the liable party (the AAS decides such disputes ex aequo et bono), i.e. mainly medical liability, motor liability and hunting liability.
- € 25,000.00 in all other cases
ACCESS TO THE PROCEDURE
Insurers and intermediaries (the ‘Operators’) automatically join the AAS upon registration in the respective registers. This is without prejudice to the possibility for insurers authorised to operate in Italy in the FOS and intermediaries registered in the list annexed to the RUI (i.e., insurance intermediary register) not to adhere to the AAS by notifying IVASS and indicating another ADR to which they adhere.
The procedure is initiated by means of an application, preceded by the lodging of a complaint with the Operators, who must decide within 45 days (ISVAP Reg. 24/2008); in the event of a late or unsatisfactory response to the complaint, an application on the same subject as the complaint may be lodged (in addition to any related claim for compensation), provided that
(i) not more than 12 months have elapsed since the complaint was lodged; and
(ii) the complaint does not relate to facts or conduct that came to the knowledge of the complainant more than 3 years after the date of the complaint.
The complaint must be lodged in person (including without the assistance of a lawyer), by a person with power of attorney or by a consumer association, and must be sent electronically together with the supporting documents.
The AAS will decide within a period of 90 days, which may be extended once for a further 90 days if the matter is complex to resolve. The AAS may also make conciliatory proposals.
OBLIGATIONS OF THE OPERATORS AND CONSEQUENCES OF NON-COMPLIANCE
Operators must comply with the decision within 30 days of its notification and submit the documentation within the following 5 days; failure to comply will be tantamount to non-compliance with the AAS decision.
Non-compliance will be published on the AAS website for a period of 5 years.
Within 15 days of the publication on the website, the Operators must publish it for 6 months in a special section on the homepage of its website.
The AAS may cancel the publication if:
(i) a final judgment has been handed down by a judicial authority in favour of the Operators; or
(ii) the Operators have notified the AAS that they have complied with the decision of the AAS or that an agreement has been reached between the parties.
An obligation is imposed on Operators to inform customers of the procedures for appealing to the AAS.
In our opinion, this obligation can be adequately fulfilled by updating the information contained in the policies and, in particular, the additional IPID in the special section dedicated to ADR.
ALTERNATIVENESS TO OTHER ADR
It is also recalled that the AAS remains in any case an alternative to mediation and assisted negotiation procedures and does not prejudice the use of any other means of redress provided for by law.
ENTRY INTO FORCE
IVASS will have four months (until 24.05.2025) to implement the technical and implementing provisions delegated by the Decree. The AAS will be declared operational by IVASS with its own measure once the aforementioned implementing rules have been approved, and in any case no later than 5 months after the publication of the aforementioned rules (final deadline: 24.10.2025).
