Terms and Conditions

Insurance Broker Contract

1. Subject

This insurance broker agreement replaces all powers of attorney and contracts in force between the contracting parties. The object of this insurance brokerage contract is the brokerage of insurance services for the insurance lines marked in the annex, which forms an integral part of this contract, by the insurance broker and consultant in insurance matters (hereinafter “insurance broker” or “broker”) to the insurance customer (hereinafter “insurance customer” or “customer”) during the term of the contract. For this purpose, the insurance customer grants the power of attorney listed overleaf to the insurance broker, who is simultaneously authorized to terminate powers of attorney granted by the insurance customer to third-party insurance brokers.

2. General

  1. The broker arranges insurance contracts between the insurance company and the customer regardless of his own interests or those of third parties, in particular independently of the interests of the insurance company. Despite the fact that the broker acts for both parties to the insurance contract, he must primarily protect the interests of the customer.
  2. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the broker shall receive remuneration for his activities directly from the respective insurer. These are commissions in accordance with § 30 MaklerG as well as any closing commissions, follow-up commissions, support commissions, sales commissions, portfolio commissions, bonuses, etc. As in the past, it is agreed that all benefits of any kind arising from the contractual relationship shall accrue exclusively to the broker.

3. Duties of the insurance broker

  1. The broker’s duty to safeguard interests includes providing the customer with professional information and advice on the insurance cover to be arranged.
  2. The broker undertakes to provide the customer with the best possible insurance cover according to the circumstances of the individual case. Unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing in individual cases, the broker’s duty to safeguard interests in this respect is limited locally to insurance companies domiciled in Austria.
  3. The broker’s obligations in accordance with § 28 no. 4 MaklerG (disclosure of legal acts performed) and § 28 no. 5 MaklerG (examination of the insurance policy) as waived.
  4. The broker supports the customer in handling the insurance relationship before and after the occurrence of an insured event. The obligation pursuant to § 28 no. 6 2nd part sentence MaklerG, namely the observance of all deadlines that are essential for the customer, in particular limitation periods and periods of obligation, shall be deemed waived. The customer is therefore responsible for ensuring that all deadlines are met and the broker cannot derive any liability from this.
  5. The broker’s obligations pursuant to § 28 no. 7 MaklerG (ongoing review of existing insurance contracts and, if necessary, submission of suitable proposals for improving the insurance cover) shall be deemed waived.

4. Duties of the insurance customer

  1. The client shall provide the broker in a timely, complete and truthful manner with all information, documents and data that the broker requires for the best possible fulfillment of his brokerage activities. This obligation to provide information also includes the immediate and unsolicited notification of any changes relevant to the insurance cover, such as a change of address, area of activity, any activity abroad, the determination, increase or reduction of sums insured, etc.
  2. The customer must cooperate in the risk analysis to the best of his ability. In particular, it is the customer’s responsibility to determine the sums insured correctly and to inform the broker of them. If necessary, the customer must participate in a risk inspection by the broker or the insurance company or companies commissioned by them after prior notification and appointment.
  3. The customer undertakes to check every insurance contract submitted for factual accuracy and to notify the broker of any errors. The customer also undertakes to take note of the “What is insured” and “Exclusions from insurance cover” sections of the terms and conditions provided and to comply with the “Obligations of the policyholder” defined in the terms and conditions.
  4. If the transactions specified in this brokerage agreement are not concluded contrary to good faith solely because the customer fails to perform a legal act necessary for the conclusion of the transaction, the customer shall compensate the broker as a contractual penalty in the amount of the lost commission of the respective insurance contract, based on a ten-year insurance term. This also applies mutatis mutandis in particular to cases in which the customer withdraws from an already signed termination order or from an already signed application to conclude an insurance contract or, after signing an application to conclude an insurance contract, revokes the power of attorney vis-à-vis the broker and/or terminates this contract.
  5. The customer must inform the broker immediately after becoming aware of any damage that has occurred and take all precautions in accordance with his duty to minimize damage. Furthermore, the customer acknowledges that both the statutory provisions of the Insurance Contract Act and the individual insurance conditions contain obligations which the customer must observe before or after the occurrence of an insured event.

5. Liability of the insurance broker

  1. The liability of the broker and his vicarious agents is limited to intent and gross negligence for the entire business relationship. The exclusion of liability only applies to consumers (§ 1 KSchG) for damage other than personal injury. Unless the customer is to be treated as a consumer (§ 1 KSchG), the broker shall only be liable for positive damages, but not for loss of profit and pure financial losses. The broker’s liability is limited to the amounts specified in Section 137c GewO in its current version, except in cases of intent. In the version dated October 31, 2013, Section 137c GewO provides for a maximum liability of EUR 1,250,000.00 for each individual case of damage and a maximum of EUR 1,850,000.00 for all cases of damage in a year. The reversal of the burden of proof in accordance with § 1298 ABGB is excluded – except in relation to consumers (§ 1 KSchG); the customer must therefore prove the existence of gross negligence on the part of the broker in addition to all other requirements for a claim for damages against the broker.
  2. The broker shall not be liable for such losses resulting from the determination of the sum insured – which is the responsibility of the customer – and the decision as to whether a risk should be insured.
  3. The broker is not liable for insurance contracts concluded without the cooperation of the broker, nor for risks and lines of business that are not ticked/marked or listed in the list of insurance lines of business.
  4. The customer acknowledges that an application signed by him or on his behalf by the broker does not yet provide insurance cover and requires acceptance by the insurance company. The customer further acknowledges that there may be an uncovered period between the signing of the insurance application and its acceptance by the insurance company. The broker’s liability cannot be derived from this circumstance. In the event that the customer requires provisional cover for uncovered periods, he must submit a written request to the broker.
  5. The broker is not obliged to pass on information about premium arrears and associated reminders to the customer, as the customer also receives this information from the insurance company. No liability of the broker can therefore be derived from this.
  6. The client confirms that no verbal collateral agreements have been made with the broker and/or its employees, in particular that no verbal promises have been made regarding the scope of insurance cover. The prerequisite for a liability relationship between the broker and the customer is the existence of a written brokerage contract. No liability of the broker can be derived from orders placed verbally – except by the consumer (§ 1 KSchG).
  7. The broker’s activities and the resulting obligations relate exclusively to the written insurance lines specified in the enclosure. Any further activity by the broker requires a further written order from the client. It is expressly clarified that lines of business which are not ticked / marked are not covered by the broker’s duty of care or duty to advise.
  8. Claims for damages against the broker shall become time-barred within 6 months after the claimant(s) knew or should have known of the damage and the damaging party (relative limitation period), but at the latest within 3 years of the occurrence of the damage (absolute limitation period). In relation to consumers (Section 1 KSchG), a period of 3 years from the dates stated above shall be deemed agreed for both the relative and absolute limitation periods.

6. Deliveries, electronic correspondence, electronic data processing

  1. The last address provided to the broker shall be deemed to be the customer’s delivery address.
  2. The customer acknowledges that due to occasional, technically unavoidable errors, the transmission of e-mails may under certain circumstances result in data being lost, falsified or disclosed. The broker shall only assume liability for these consequences if he is at fault. The receipt of e-mails does not constitute provisional coverage and has no effect on the acceptance of a contract offer.
  3. The client agrees to the inclusion of all his original documents (adviser’s records, notes, applications, policies, etc.) in the broker’s IT system. The customer recognizes scanned copies as originals.
  4. The customer agrees that conversations (including telephone calls) may be recorded on audio media for documentation purposes, in particular if the customer applies for insurance cover, reports a claim, etc.

7. Copyright

All insurance contract concepts or parts thereof created by the broker are protected by copyright. The use of these concepts is subject to the condition that the broker receives a standard market commission from the insurance contracts brokered by him which are based on such concepts or parts thereof. Unauthorized use, reproduction, distribution or disclosure to third parties is prohibited.

If the customer continues to use the insurance contract concepts or parts thereof improperly, in particular after conversion or termination of these insurance contracts originally brokered by the broker, without the broker being entitled to commission, the customer shall owe the broker compensation in the amount of the commission that the broker would have earned up to the scheduled expiry of the insurance contract originally brokered by the broker.

8. Confidentiality – Data protection

We expressly acknowledge that in the course of the execution of the order or the fulfillment of the contractual obligations of the above-mentioned insurance broker, personal data will be processed within the meaning of the GDPR and that this data will also be passed on to third parties (lawyers, insurance companies, etc.) in the course of fulfilling the contractual obligations.

The above-mentioned insurance broker is further authorized to give consent to the use of our data (excluding sensitive data within the meaning of § 9 GDPR).

We expressly authorize the above-mentioned insurance broker to make all declarations and/or take all actions in connection with electronic communication in accordance with § 5a VersVG, in particular for the agreement and revocation of electronic communication.

In particular, the authorized representative is also authorized to make all declarations and/or take all actions in connection with the agreement of formal requirements, in particular written form agreements within the meaning of § 5a para. 2 and § 15a para. 2 VersVG entitled.

– Consent to the processing of health data:

We hereby expressly consent to the above-mentioned insurance broker collecting and processing our health data, such as our entire medical history, for the purpose of fulfilling the contract (e.g. for the assessment and conclusion of insurance cover).

We also expressly agree that the processed data may also be passed on to third parties, in particular to insurance companies by the above-mentioned insurance brokers, within the scope of the fulfillment of the contract in question.

We note that we can revoke this consent at any time.

– We also expressly acknowledge that if consent to data processing is revoked (in whole or in part/by line of business), the insurance broker may no longer work for us in the areas concerned and therefore assumes no liability for the areas concerned from the time of receipt of the revocation. The revocation has NO influence on the rest of the agreement and the divisions not affected.

– Consent to the sending and transmission of advertising and information material by the above-mentioned insurance broker:

As part of the contractual relationship, the above-mentioned insurance broker processes the personal contact data. In addition to the use of this data for contract processing, the above-mentioned insurance broker would like to send information and advertising material via this contact data (e-mail, home address, fax, telephone).

We hereby expressly consent to information and advertising material being sent to the contact addresses we have provided. We would like to be kept informed about the latest products and services of the above-mentioned insurance broker by fax, e-mail, telephone, SMS or post.

We note that we can revoke this consent at any time.

9. Duration and termination

  1. The insurance broker contract shall enter into force on the day it is signed, is concluded for an indefinite period and may be terminated in writing by either party at any time without notice. The termination of the contract is also deemed to be a revocation/termination of the power of attorney and vice versa.
  2. After termination of the contract or revocation of the power of attorney, the customer shall immediately, but within 6 months at the latest, consult an insurance expert to have his insurance agendas comprehensively reviewed, risk analyses prepared and the scope of cover checked. As the broker finally loses any possibility of correcting any past deficiencies in advice upon termination of the business relationship, the absolute limitation period is reduced to 6 months, whereby this period begins with the termination of the business relationship.
  3. After termination of this insurance brokerage agreement and after revocation of the power of attorney, the broker shall continue to be entitled to obtain information from all insurance companies for the purpose of safeguarding and verifying his commission claims.

10. Final provisions

  1. Amendments and/or additions to this contract must be made in writing in order to be valid; this also applies to any waiver of the written form requirement. This provision does not apply to consumers (§ 1 KSchG).
  2. The contracting parties agree that the provisions of this insurance brokerage agreement shall remain valid even if the broker or client changes its legal form or if a change in the legal entity occurs in any other way.
  3. The possible invalidity of individual provisions or sections of this insurance brokerage contract shall not affect the binding nature of the remaining provisions.
  4. This insurance brokerage agreement shall generally apply to all contractual relationships irrespective of the time at which the power of attorney was signed and irrespective of when the broker’s support activities began. This insurance brokerage agreement therefore also applies to the broker’s activities prior to the signing of the power of attorney. The extent of liability defined by this insurance brokerage agreement also applies in particular to those brokerage activities carried out by shareholders, executive bodies, cooperation partners or employees of the broker.
  5. The place of performance is the location of the broker’s professional establishment. In the event of disputes, the competent court at the location of the broker’s professional establishment shall have exclusive jurisdiction, provided that there are no mandatory statutory provisions to the contrary in individual cases.
  6. The provisions of this insurance brokerage contract shall also apply in the event of revocation or termination of the power of attorney listed overleaf and in the event of termination of the contract in accordance with point 9 beyond the loss of power of attorney or the end of the contract. This applies in particular to the scope of liability.
  7. It is expressly agreed that Austrian law shall apply with the exception of international reference standards.
  8. This agreement shall be drawn up in two copies.

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