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Distribution of Insurance-Based Investment Products pp 129–151Cite as

France

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Abstract

The law relating to the distribution of insurance-based investment contracts in France is a complex accumulation of statutory provisions, European legal instruments and case law. Lately, the transposition of the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) has added an additional layer of complexity as no real effort has been made to rationalise its impact taking into account the existing legal framework, not least Regulation 1286/2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (”PRIIPS Regulation”). This Chapter deals specifically with the liability arising from the distribution, both by insurers and intermediaries, of insurance-based investment products.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bigot et al. (2014).

  2. 2.

    French contract law was subject to a major reform contained in ordinance n°2016-131 of 10 February 2016 amending the Civil Code and which entered into force on 1st October 2016.

  3. 3.

    Article 113 of the Civil Code (our translation).

  4. 4.

    Malaurie and Aynès (2016).

  5. 5.

    Cass. Ch. mixte, 24 mai 1975, Société Cafés Jacques Vabre.

  6. 6.

    CE Ass. 20 octobre 1989, Nicolo.

  7. 7.

    Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I).

  8. 8.

    See inter alia the report of the European Commission set up an Expert Group on European Insurance Contract law of 24 January 2014 available at: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/contract/files/expert_groups/insurance/final_report_en.pdf.

  9. 9.

    Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II).

  10. 10.

    Essentially between the Insurance Code and the Mutual Code as Article L 923-23 of the Social Security Code generally refers back to the Insurance Code.

  11. 11.

    As an example, the Constitutional Court recently stroke out a provision allowing for the termination of mortgage insurance at any time because “…these additions were not, at this stage of the procedure, directly related to a provision still under discussion. Nor were they intended to ensure compliance with the Constitution, to coordinate with texts under consideration or to correct a material error”—in other words, the inclusion of the specific provision had no relation with the rest of the Act. Decision n° 2016-741 of 8 December 2016.

  12. 12.

    Recommandation sur le recueil des informations relatives à la connaissance du client dans le cadre du devoir de conseil en assurance-vie, available at http://acpr.banque-france.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/acp/publications/registre-officiel/Recommandation-2013-R-01-de-l-ACP.pdf.

  13. 13.

    Article L 310-1 of the Insurance Code.

  14. 14.

    Article L. 310-1-1 of the Insurance Code.

  15. 15.

    Société d’investissement à capital variable, i.e. investment company with variable capital.

  16. 16.

    Fonds communs de placement, i.e. investment funds.

  17. 17.

    Société civile immobilière is a specific type of civil (as opposed to commercial) company whose sole purpose is to detain and manage real property.

  18. 18.

    Article L. 131-1 of the Insurance Code.

  19. 19.

    Article R. 131-1 of the Insurance Code.

  20. 20.

    Article R. 131-1 of the Insurance Code.

  21. 21.

    Article L. 362-2 of the Insurance Code.

  22. 22.

    Article L. 362-1 of the Insurance Code.

  23. 23.

    Article L. 310-10 of the Insurance Code.

  24. 24.

    Ordinance n°2018-36 dated 16 May 2018.

  25. 25.

    Decree dated 1st June 2018.

  26. 26.

    Article L. 511-1 of the Insurance Code.

  27. 27.

    Kullmann et al. (2017).

  28. 28.

    Article L. 112-2 of the Insurance Code.

  29. 29.

    Article L. 132-5-2 of the Insurance Code.

  30. 30.

    Article L.112-4 of the Insurance Code.

  31. 31.

    There is surprisingly significant case law in relation to what constitutes “very apparent print”. Generally, the fonts used must stand out and therefore not be used for any other section of the document (Cass. Civ. 1st, 1st December. 1998, n° 96-18.993) so that the attention of the policyholder is specifically drawn to it (Cass. Civ. 1st, 11 Dec. 1990, n° 89-15.248). A typical option will be bold and/or capitalised fonts.

  32. 32.

    Article A. 132-4-1 of the Insurance Code.

  33. 33.

    Article A. 132-5 of the Insurance Code.

  34. 34.

    Article A. 132-7 of the Insurance Code.

  35. 35.

    Article A. 132-4-3 of the insurance Code.

  36. 36.

    Article L.132-5-2 of the Insurance Code.

  37. 37.

    Article L. 141-4 of the Insurance Code.

  38. 38.

    Article L. 132-5-3 of the Insurance Code.

  39. 39.

    Referred to in the third paragraph of Article L. 132-5-2.

  40. 40.

    See Chapter I para 5.2 on the optional exemption provided under article 30 para 3 IDD.

  41. 41.

    Kullmann et al. (2017), op. cit. n°51.

  42. 42.

    Cass. 1st Civ., 9 May 2001.

  43. 43.

    Cass. 2nd Civ., 5 July 2006: in this case, the insurance agent should have warned the policyholder that her change in circumstances rendered the policy inadequate.

  44. 44.

    Recommendation on the collection of information relating to the knowledge of the customer in the context of information duties in life insurance, 2013-R-01 of 8 January 2013.

  45. 45.

    Paragraph 4.1.5.

  46. 46.

    Paragraph 4.2.

  47. 47.

    Analysed in Astegiano-La Rizza, A., Le contenu de l’information de l’assuré, Revue Générale de Droit des Assurances 2007 p. 464.

  48. 48.

    Cass. Civ. 1st., 12 May 1987 mentioned in Kullmann et al. (2017), op. cit. n°53.

  49. 49.

    Cass. Civ. 2nd, 19 mai 2016.

  50. 50.

    Cass. Civ. 2nd, 15 December 2011.

  51. 51.

    Cass. Civ. 1st, 9 July 1996.

  52. 52.

    Cass. Civ. 2nd, 8 September 2005.

  53. 53.

    Cass. Civ. 2, 3 October 2013, 12-24957.

  54. 54.

    Cass. Civ. 2, 2 June 2005.

  55. 55.

    Cass. Com. 31 May 2011, 10-20.043.

  56. 56.

    Cass. com. 9 December 2014, 13-23.673.

  57. 57.

    Luc Mayaux, Traité de Droit des assurances, Tome 4.

  58. 58.

    Cass. com. 9 December 2014, 13-23.673.

  59. 59.

    Cass. Civ 1. 18 February 2003.

  60. 60.

    Cass. Com. 1 December 2015, 14-22.134.

  61. 61.

    Sabard (2013), p. 23.

  62. 62.

    Cass. com. 15 February 2011, 09-16779.

  63. 63.

    Cass. Civ 2, 13 September 2012, 11-19408.

  64. 64.

    Cass. com., 12 juill. 2011, 10-17579.

  65. 65.

    Cass. Com., 22 September 2009, 08-18141.

  66. 66.

    Cass. Civ 1, 4 February 1997, 95-12.572.

Abbreviations

ACPR:

Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution

EEA:

European Economic Area

IDD:

Directive (EU) 2016/97 on insurance distribution

KID:

Key Information Document

ORIAS:

Organisme pour le Registre des Intermédiaires en Assurance

PRIIPS Regulation:

Regulation 1286/2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products

Solvency II Directive:

Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance

References

  • Bigot J et al (2014) Traité de droit des assurances, Le contrat d’assurance Tome I, 2nd edn. LGDJ, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Kullmann J et al (2017) Lamy Assurances. Wolters Kluwer, Alphen aan den Rijn

    Google Scholar 

  • Malaurie P, Aynès L (2016) Droit des obligations, 8th edn. LGDJ, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabard O (2013) L’évaluation de la perte de chance par le juge judiciaire. Les Petite Affiches 218:23

    Google Scholar 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clyde & Co LLP, Paris, France

    Yannis Samothrakis

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  1. Yannis Samothrakis
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Correspondence to Yannis Samothrakis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Law Department, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Milano, Italy

    Pierpaolo Marano

  2. Department of Business Administration, (em.) Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Attiki, Greece

    Ioannis Rokas

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Samothrakis, Y. (2019). France. In: Marano, P., Rokas, I. (eds) Distribution of Insurance-Based Investment Products. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11668-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11668-2_5

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