Road traffic

Accidents abroad? The compensation process starts with Consap

EU legislation has identified procedures to facilitate compensation. Consap starting point for claiming compensation in case of road accidents abroad

by Mauro De Filippis and Filippo Martini

19 August 2024

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Key points

The compensation mechanism for road accidents abroad
Subpoena
The role of the U.C.I. in compensation for accidents in Italy with foreign vehicles
Cooperation between offices

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The Community legislator has long been concerned about citizens resident in the European Union who, in transit through an EU country, suffer an injury due to a road accident involving vehicles registered in different European countries. It may happen that the accident takes place on the soil of an EU country other than the victim's country of residence, or in one's own country but a foreign vehicle is responsible. In both cases, the purpose of the Community law, which the acceding countries have long since implemented internally, was to make it easier to find the relevant insurers to whom one can address one's claims in order to easily obtain compensation for damages unjustly suffered.

The Compensation Mechanism for Road Traffic Accidents Abroad

Thus, with Directive 2000/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 May 2000 (known as the Fourth Motor Vehicle Directive) transposed in Italy by Legislative Decree No 190 of 30 June 2003, an articulated mechanism was set up to allow those who suffer damage from a road accident in another State to easily find an interlocutor in Italy to whom they can address their claims and who will be obliged to compensate them for the damage.

The mechanism hinges on the functioning of certain subjects:

- the Information Centre, which each Member State must set up to enable injured parties to identify the insurer of the vehicle that caused the accident; in Italy it is represented byConsap.

- the claims representative, whom every motor liability insurer authorised to operate in the European Union must mandatorily appoint in each of the other Member States, with the task of receiving the claims of injured parties, gathering the necessary information on the settlement of claims and taking the necessary steps to negotiate the settlement of claims; it is now possible to check directly who the claims representative is by consulting www.cobx.org

- the compensation body, the function of which is to receive claims when the claims representative or the insurer has not made a reasoned offer of compensation or has not given reasons for rejecting the offer within three months from the date of the claim.

The subpoena

If the negotiations with the claims representative appointed by the foreign insurer are not successfully concluded, the possibility was envisaged (with the issue of the Fifth Motor Directive 2005/14/EC) for the injured party to sue the foreign vehicle's third party liability insurer in his own country. This community model was then implemented in Italy by the Private Insurance Code, where paragraph 5 of article 151 envisages the possibility, in the case of accidents occurring abroad and falling within the scope of the Fourth Directive, that "the persons entitled to compensation may take direct action against the insurance company that covers the third party liability of the responsible party".

The role of the U.C.I. in compensation for accidents in Italy with foreign vehicles

On the other hand, when the victim has suffered an injury as a result of an accident that occurred in Italy but the person responsible was driving a vehicle with a registration plate issued by another EU country, or by the Republic of San Marino or the Vatican City, claims for compensation can be addressed and managed by the U.C.I. - the Italian Central Office, which performs the functions of the Bureau for Italy within the Green Card System, based in Milan.

Cooperation between offices

The system today governed by articles 125 and 126 of legislative decree no. 209 of 7 September 2005 (private insurance code) thus allows injured parties to have an easier and faster response thanks to the cooperation between the various international bureaux. In fact, the U.C.I. represents the corresponding foreign bureau based in the country where the vehicle responsible for the accident was registered and will be obliged, either directly or by decentralised management to companies in charge of handling claims, to pay damages, or to appear before the judge in disputes where it has not been possible to find a conciliatory solution.