Freedom to Provide Services as a Form of the Cross-Border Activity of Foreign Insurance Undertakings in Poland

Abstract

This paper discusses a number of aspects related to the conducting of insurance activity under the freedom to provide services regime in Poland by insurance undertakings based in the European Economic Area, requirements for undertaking such an activity, as well as criteria for distinguishing between the freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment as two regimes for carrying out cross-border insurance activity. The development of new technologies will result in a growing interest in the freedom to provide services as a model of offering insurance products in other EEA countries. This is a consequence of the procedural straightforwardness of the freedom to provide services regime which introduces the notification of intention to engage in cross-border business to the home supervisory authority as the only entry requirement. In this context, the existing criteria for distinguishing between the two freedoms may prove to be insufficient. Therefore, further distinguishing criteria pertaining to the cross-border sales of online insurance are likely to be developed in the coming years.The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of the issues related to the insurance business pursued by the EEA insurers in Poland under the freedom to provide services regime, in particular with regard to the mass insurance products. This paper also presents a brief description of likely directions of future legislative developments in this area.