The Consumer Information Association (VKI) is launching a collection campaign for owners of life insurance policies. Contracts concluded before 2007 are affected. According to the VKI, this always contains impermissible stipulations that underlie the amounts charged.
The amount of the acquisition and administration costs was partly insufficiently clear. It is often not until the premature termination of a contract that the payment is significantly lower than the premiums paid. According to a VKI broadcast, the damage can amount to several thousand euros per contract.
The companies have to pay back this money. The Supreme Court has already ruled in several judgments that some cost deduction clauses in life insurance policies are not transparent and therefore inadmissible. The Commercial Court of Vienna also confirmed this legal position.
“I can not see”
“It is incomprehensible that, despite established case law, insurance companies continue to charge costs based on inadmissible clauses,” says Ulrike Wolf, head of the class action litigation department at the VKI. “We are asking insurance companies to reimburse wrongly withheld costs.”
Affected are consumers who, between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2006, took out a classic or unit-linked insurance policy with Wiener Städtische, Uniqa Austria, Allianz Elementar, Nürnberger Versicherung, Generali or FWU (formerly Skandia) Versicherung. In addition, people who have terminated their life insurance prematurely can participate in the collection campaign.
You can register online.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
