language and documentation contractual of Italian insurance I am still too complicated and the pandemic has exacerbated the problem. This is the opinion expressed on Thursday by Stefano De Polis, Secretary General of the Insurance Supervisory Institute (Ivass), during a webinar of the International Association of Insurance Law (Aida).
Unclear insurance contracts is often a reason to complaints and disputes by customers and "the pandemic situation has recently had a significant impact on this phenomenon", continues De Polis. In fact, since the health emergency began, many have expressed doubts "about the applicability of the standard contractual clauses in the context of the exceptional situation created by the pandemic - explains the general secretary of IVASS - Consumer reports mainly concerned the travel policies (64%), life and health policies (16%), the motor liability sector (14%) and pecuniary losses (6%)”.
The typical case is that of holidays skipped due to anti-Covid measures which restricted movement. Many customers - believing that the pandemic was a cause of force majeure - asked the companies to be compensated, but were not satisfied precisely because the contract clauses did not clearly explain obligations and rights in such a circumstance. Hence the surge in complaints.
Another widespread problem concerns the length of the insurance documents, which often become difficult folders to deal with. The reason is simple: in addition to the really useful information, the companies also include in the contract a series of (unsolicited) explanations on the coverage that the customer may activate in the future, but which are not covered by the policy at that time. All this translates into infinite PDFs or mountains of sheets that only generate confusion.
“Today it is not uncommon to subscribe even for the most widespread coverages contracts of more than 200 pages”, notes De Polis, adding that the problem also concerns “the additional information documents in the pre-contractual phase: they should be 2/3 pages like the main information document, and instead they often exceed 20 pages”. In general, the general secretary of IVASS believes that the contracts are still too murky and therefore asks the companies to modify them to "ensure customers correct, clear and exhaustive information, which facilitates understanding of the characteristics, risks and costs of the products offered and allows for easy comparability”.
