IVASS final rules for the implementation of the Italian Insurance Arbitrator’s proceedings

Following the public consultation launched on 6 march 2025, on 23 May 2025 IVASS published on its website its final technical provisions implementing Ministerial Decree No. 215/2024 which introduced the so-called Italian Insurance Arbitrator, the new out-of-court dispute resolution system designed to strengthen consumer protection in the insurance sector.

As only few amendments have been made to IVASS implementing rules with respect to the draft under public consultation, please refer to our previous news in this regard for more details about the feature of the Insurance Arbitrator and the related proceeding before the same (available here).

The amendments mentioned above are the following:

• While it has been confirmed that insurance undertakings and intermediaries operating in Italy under freedom to provide services regime which do not intend to join the Insurance Arbitrator shall notify IVASS by 30 July 2025 (specifying the out-of-court dispute resolution system FIN-NET to which they adhere and the address of the relevant website), it has been clarified that the notification to IVASS by adhering companies and intermediaries relating to the contact person for the handling of appeals and the electronic means used for communicating with the Insurance Arbitrator (e.g. PEC, Registered Electronic Mail) shall be made within the same deadline mentioned above.

• The time limits for the conduct and conclusion of the proceedings before the Insurance Arbitrator are suspended not only from 1 to 31 August of each year as provided under the draft, but also from 23 December to 6 January of each year;
• All the decisions of the Insurance Arbitrator will be published on its website, and not only those considered most relevant by the President of the same, as provided under the draft;
• It has been clarified that in cases of horizontal collaborations between insurance intermediaries, the appeal to the Insurance Arbitrator shall be made, depending on the specific grievance, at the option of the complainant, against the issuing intermediary or the proposing intermediary, for those aspects pertaining to itself and those concerning the conduct of its employees or collaborators. In order to ensure an adversarial debate with the intermediary that is not the direct addressee of the appeal, it is provided that the insurance company or intermediary that is the direct addressee of the appeal shall transmit to the intermediaries that are part of a horizontal collaboration the appeal and any rebuttal briefs accompanied by all the relevant documentation and acquire from them their respective defences with respect to the issue that is the subject of the appeal with any attached documentation.
• As provided under Ministerial Decree No. 215/2024, insurance undertakings and intermediaries shall comply with the decision of the Insurance Arbitrator within 30 days of its notification and within the subsequent 5 days they shall submit appropriate documentation to the Secretariat of the Arbitrator. Failure to comply with the decisions of the Arbitrator (to which is equated the failure to communicate compliance within the prescribed time limit) must be made known by publication not only on the website of the Insurance Arbitrator, but also by the company or intermediary itself on its own website. In this regard, it has been clarified that if the intermediary does not have its own website, it shall fulfil the disclosure obligations by posting an appropriate notice within its premises. After 30 days have elapsed from the publication on the website of the Insurance Arbitrator of the notice of non-compliance with the decision by the losing company and/or intermediary, without the technical secretariat having received the communication due from such parties about the fulfilment of the decision, the website of the Insurance Arbitrator shall note the non-receipt of such communication on its website.

In addition to the above, as from 26 May 2025 the website of the Insurance Arbitrator is online (available here). However, the Arbitrator is not yet operational and will become so through a specific order of IVASS that will be published on its website and the Arbitrator's website. At the moment, therefore, it is not possible to file an appeal to the Insurance Arbitrator.

Authored by Silvia Lolli and Davide Valloni.