The Polish Insurance Association has prepared a document titled “Good practices of the Polish Insurance Association on the Polish insurance market in equipment insurance”. The objective of all good practices is to improve the quality of information provided to all customers who at the time of purchase of electronic equipment, radio and TV equipment/household appliances receive an additional insurance offer.
Such insurance provides for protection in the case of the equipment’s failure or damage. – Due to high interest in these services and the signals we get from customers, it is necessary to determine the principles of offering these types of policies and informing consumers about their nature. Our intention is that every customer buying any equipment should be aware of the insurance coverage and its value. I do not have doubts that a good service offered by the insurer at the purchase of electronic equipment is a big value for a customer – says Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński, President of the Board of PIU.
According to good practices, distributors of equipment are obliged to present the information on insurance in such a fair way preventing from equating the nature of protection with the guarantee provided by the manufacturer of the equipment The information provided to the customer in promotional materials, by phone or at the time of purchase must explicitly indicate the legal form of service, the insurer’s name and point out that the protection is not tantamount to the guarantee or warranty for manufacturing defects within the meaning of the Civil Code. An important information for customers is that the good practices are to be adopted not only by insurers, but also by distributors, namely store chains. – The document prepared by us provides for training sessions to be conducted for employees of store chains; this will ensure that the information on insurance given to customers will be reliable and complete – says Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński.
On 14 November this year, the document was delivered to insurance companies. The industry is planning to implement these good practices at the end of the first quarter of 2017. The document has been submitted to consultations with the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) and the Financial Ombudsman. In the correspondence with the Polish Insurance Association, the Ombudsman supported the initiative emphasising that it was an important step towards the improvement of the standards of services to customers benefiting from this type of insurance.
Text of good practices in equipment insurance
Opinion of the Insurance Ombudsman on good practices
