“Confinement of the concept of “third party” in MTPL insurance”
By virtue of a recent amendment of the Greek law on compulsory MTPL insurance, that is Law no. 489/1976 (introduced by art. 50 of Law no. 4949/2022), the circle of recipients of insurance money upon occurrence of motor vehicle accidents was extended, since only the driver of the vehicle that caused the motor accident is not considered a ‘third party’. Pursuant to the previous wording of the provision in question, neither the individuals whose liability was covered by the insurance contract nor the policyholders nor the legal representatives of the insured legal entity (or the company without legal personality) were regarded as ‘third parties’ so that they could not be covered by the compulsory MTPL insurance, even if they were not the drivers of the damaged vehicles themselves. The previous provision was strongly criticized by academics while it was also inconsistent with CJEU case law which had ruled that any person whose liability is covered by the insurance contract, as well as the policyholder and the legal representatives of the insured legal entity, must be entitled to insurance money. The expansion of the individuals entitled to insurance money on the basis of the reasoning that, although such individuals are under an obligation to take out MTPL insurance, the occurrence of the insured risk ultimately falls outside their sphere of influence, appears to be in line with the long-standing approach of the doctrine as well as the requirements of the European Court of Justice.
Authors: X. Kretsovali, Associate & Kosmas Karanikolas, Associate
For the full article, please Download: 