The issue of liability for the sales process of insurance products, including misselling practices, shall be dependent on the status of the insurance agent which concludes the insurance contracts on behalf of the insurance company.
Should the insurance agent be an exclusive agent of an insurance company i.e. is acting solely on behalf of one insurance company, it is this insurance company which is the entity fully liable for damage caused by such an insurance agent in connection with the performance of agency acts.
Whereas an insurance agent who performs agency activities on behalf of more than one insurance company in the field of the same branch of insurance is the so-called multiagent who shall be liable for damages caused to the client, the insured, the policyholder and the entitled from an insurance contract, in connection with the performance of such activities. In such case, the agent shall be subject to a compulsory civil liability insurance.
Such a civil liability covers damages caused by an insurance agent in connection with the activities carried out in the territory of Poland and the other EU member states. The insurance obligation arises on the day of concluding an agency contract with the second insurance company, performing insurance activity in the field of the same branch of insurance. The guarantee sums are determined according to the average exchange rate announced by the National Bank of Poland for the first time in the year of insurance contract conclusion.
