Patricia Shine reports on an own goal in an EU insurance dispute
The Brussels I Regulation (the regulation) on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters establishes a general scheme of jurisdictional rules to be applied uniformly across the EU. Jurisdiction is based primarily on the domicile of the defendant as set out in Art 2, but this basic rule may be varied by one of the supporting and amplifying provisions set out in other articles. Insurance matters, however, have their own jurisdiction rules, with the aim of ensuring stronger protection for the weaker party, as set out in Arts 8 to 14 in Chapter II, s 3, of the regulation. Article 12(1) states that in insurance matters, an insurer may bring proceedings only in the courts of the member state in which the defendant is domiciled, irrespective of whether he is the policyholder, the insured or a beneficiary. Article 13 allows the rules in this section to be departed from in the event of agreement between the parties, which may be given after the dispute has arisen.
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