lost an appeal against the foundation "Koersplan de weg kwijt" concerning the "Woekerpolis" and more specific the level of premiums charged for the mortality insurance that was embedded in the product. Those “Woekerpolis” products were sold during the period 1989-1998.
According to the Foundation, it is entitled to € 1,400 compensation for each of the 23,000 policies held by the 18,000 members it represents. This is a total of € 33m. The amount is not immediately payable and the Amsterdam Court of appeal states that other clients cannot benefit from the ruling, which could, according to the Foundation, cost
between € 800-1,000m. Other clients could however start a court case and use this ruling as supportive argumentation.
will appeal with Cassation since it considers that the ruling was based on 1 non-representative example that was withheld by the Court to make its ruling.
Our View:
The court case against of "Koersplan de weg kwijt" started in 2005. The ruling has nothing to do with the compensation regimes (retro-active improvements of policy conditions) that most insurers, including , have been offering to their "Woekerpolis" clients to compensate for overcharging. stated that it is appealing the Court ruling and that it is still in the process of examining the content of the ruling. It is not clear at this stage if and when (nor how much) may have to pay out compensation to its clients.
Conclusion:
We remain Accumulating with an unchanged target at € 7.0.