On 3 February 2025, the public consultation on the draft Order No. 9/2024 amending Regulation No. 40 of 2 August 2018, ended. Pending the publication of the results by IVASS, the main new features introduced by the measure are recalled below.
IVASS has submitted for public consultation draft Order No. 9/2024 which amends both Regulation No. 40 of 2 August 2018 containing provisions on insurance and reinsurance distribution, and Regulation No. 41 of 2 August 2018 containing provisions on disclosure, advertisement and creation of insurance products.
The purpose of Order is to prevent discrimination and provide protection in favour of individuals who have suffered from oncological diseases, pursuant to article 2, paragraph 7, Law 193/2023 (hereinafter referred to as “law of the right to be forgotten in oncology”).
In brief, according to the law on the right to be forgotten in oncology, at the time of conclusion or renewal of a contract, insurance companies and distributors may not acquire information on the health status of the client, when a certain period of time has elapsed since the last active treatment and there has been no recurrence of the disease.
Where the client has provided the above information, this will not be taken into account for the determination of risk, if requirements for the right to be forgotten in oncology have been met.
Article 1, paragraphs 3 and 4 with the introduction of art. 56-bis and art. 56-ter in Regulation No. 40, 2018 of Order, regulates the conditions for the exercise and respect of the right to be forgotten in oncology. Pursuant to art. 56-bis, distributors must provide the client in the MUP (pre-contractual single model), clear information using selected typographical characters on the right to be forgotten in oncology. Therefore, where there has been no relapse, the oncological treatment has concluded, and the time indicated in Law 193/2023 has expired, the client is not obliged to provide any information about their former oncological disease. With reference to article 58, Reg. 40, 2018, if the policyholder and the insured are not the same person, the information on the right to be forgotten in oncology will be provided to both since this must be well understood by the risk holder.
Information on previous oncological diseases cannot be acquired by distributors and, when such information is in their possession, this cannot be taken into account neither at the pre-contractual stage to determine the terms of the contract (e.g., limitations/exclusions of guarantees) nor in the execution stage for risk assessment and solvency.
Subsequently, article 56-ter establishes how the policyholder or the insured might exercise their right to be forgotten in oncology. In short, there is specified that the certification attesting the possession of requirements for the right to be forgotten in oncology must be acquired according to Decree 5 July 2024 and sent to the insurance company.
Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 2 of Order, in accordance with the primary legislation, supplements the definitions already existing in Reg. 41, 2018 with: “termination of active treatment for oncological diseases”.
Subsequently, in virtue of paragraphs 3 and 4 there is established that pre-contractual information documents (DIP) should have been supplemented with an explanation of how to exercise the right to be forgotten in oncology. In addition, untruthful, inaccurate or reticent statements are not likely to jeopardise the right to benefit, if they are related to oncological diseases for which the right to forgotten in oncology applies.
On the basis of article 3, insurance companies and distributors must implement the content of MUP and DIP by 5 July 2025.
More information will be provided when the results of the public consultation are published.