Business practices, different approaches to information disclosure and conflicts of interest have caused the lack ofcredibility and trustworthiness regarding insurance companies and on the insurance market as a whole. Potentially unfair business practices have been declared as ‘well implemented’by some ‘particularly flexible’insurers. The EU regulations provide the best possible prevention for the customers as well as non-customers against such business practices.
German and Austria have done a pioneer work in fighting against unfair competition since the beginning of the 20th century, so that EU. did not actuallv have to ‘rediscover a wheel’. Unfair Competition Law is the basic legal framework against unfair competition in Germany, having its origins in the law from 1909. It grants the claim rights in case of omission, damage, liguidation, skimming of excess profit and information. Unfair competition is therefore a part of trade and industrial law. Unfair competition, according to the German Unfair Competition Law, ‘is any fraudulent, deceptive, or dishonest business conduct or attitude that can affect the relationship between suppliers and consumers’. Unfair business practices are especially those, which can be called ‘aggressive’and ‘misleading’.
Menu