TimesNr. 3/17

Hamburg, Germany Monday, 15 September 2017

Independence Day Conference 2017 | Reichstag Berlin

TimesPrologue by rolf Diekhoff

Dear members and business partners,

It has been three months since we hosted our 12th Independence Day Conference in Berlin, which 240 peo-ple attended – a new record number for unison!

Therefore, on behalf of unisonSteadfast, I would like to cordially thank everyone who joined us this year during the workshops, lively discussions as well as the sociable networking events and contributed to the incomparable character of this year‘s IDC. Especially, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to our generous sponsors, without whom such a high-level conference would not have been possible.

Within the scope of „disruptive technologies“, against the backdrop of the increasing necessity to integrate modern data processing tools in the insurance industry, the IDC 2017 was inaugurated by our robot team mate NAO.

For this late-breaking issue, we could win high-class speakers from the IT security industry giving us new and partly shocking insights in IT security, InsureTechs, IT law and integration of IT solutions at medium-sized broking companies that definitely broadened our horizon and informed us on the latest developments in these areas – even if the outcome was the shocking fact that both industry and society recklessly and with great ease set out to find the new „Promised Land“ in the IT world. Dr. Sandro Gaycken, i. a. Cyber Security Advisor to the German Government and the NATO, enabled us a completely new and unique inside view of the cyber security world and its current situation.

The insurance industry plays an important role in this new world. Brokers as well as risk carriers are requested to identify and understand these risks and also adapt to them themselves to satisfy this new technological era.

In Berlin, we also introduced our new strategic partnership with the Australian Steadfast Group, which will lift our network to a new phase. With its 350 member brokers in Australia and New Zealand as well as great market influence in London, thanks to an own established Lloyd‘s broker, the Steadfast Group, being the major Australian brokers‘ network, will be able to furnish novel and valuable approaches to implement the cluster model, which has proven itself successfully in Australia and New Zealand, in regions where unison is traditionally strongly represented.

In the course of this development, we are going to extend our well-known service model with respect to pro-ducts on the domestic market and placing facilities, along with a joint market appearance. We will provide you with more information on this change in our portfolio in due course.

In conclusion, we find ourselves in thrilling times with great challenges and opportunities. We are looking forward to continuing our successful path with you.

Timescontent

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NewsMembersMarket and Product InformationEditorial Team

Independence Day Conference 2017 | Castle Charlottenburg

Timesnews

Zurich MIA Training Webinar

Dear unisonSteadfast members,

As part of Zurich’s strategic partnership with unisonSteadfast globally, you can gain access to our award winning Multinational Insurance Application (MIA) tool for structuring international programs. As a result, we are organi-sing a Zurich MIA training webinar, which will be useful for any colleagues working in your international depart-ment, whether new or experienced users. We would encourage you to forward this invitation on to your colleagues so that they can also register for MIA access and the webinar.

Day: Wednesday 20 September 2017Time: 14:30 CET – 16:00 CETTarget audience: unisonSteadfast MIA users

Key topicsThe webinar will address MIA’s main features and how it can be used to better structure international programs.

Areas covered include:• Is non-admitted insurance permitted?• What is permitted when conducting insurance business across borders on a non-admitted basis?• How various ‘conduct of insurance’ elements (risk transfer, risk engineering services, claims handling, claims payment) affect program design.• Different program structures (business scenarios) and the variations of what is permitted in each of them (Ground-up, DIC/DIL, Excess).• How permitted activities can vary significantly, depending on the country of risk or lines of business.• Understanding non-admitted tax requirements.• How to export results from Zurich MIA.

Register now:To register for the webinar please e-mail gunda.stichbury@unisonsteadfast.com with the following details: • Your name• Your firm• Your e-Mail-address

Getting the most from the webinarTo make the webinar more effective we would advise you to:

1) Obtain your Zurich MIA Login and accessClick here to register for Zurich MIA https://mia-ext.zurich.com/main.aspx

2) Go through the online tutorialOnce you have logged in to Zurich MIA, follow the link to the tutorial which will give you a brief overview of the tool.

3) Send any questions in advance to dimitrios.mazarakis@uk.zurich.com.

Kind regards,

Dimitrios MazarakisBroker Strategy and Distribution Manager, Zurich Commercial Insurance

• Entertainment tax (other than the tax levied by the local bodies)• Central Sales Tax ( levied by the Centre and collected by the States)

Few important provisions:

• Joint administration by Centre and States• Fewer rates of 0% , 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% • Likely to bring many more businesses into taxnet• Input tax credit at each stage and therefore avoids

cascading effect• A private company GSTN is going to manage IT

Impact on Insurance:

Earlier Insurance attracted Service tax of 15 % . The same will be raised to 18 %.

While input tax credit is available for business insurances like Fire, Marine, the same is NOT available for employee benefits policies like medical, term insurance etc..

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INDIA

First Policy Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd.Ashok Jain, Email: ashok.jain@firstpolicy.com

India has introduced effective July 1, 2017 Goods and Service Tax (GST). This is biggest tax reform since inde-pendence in 1947. The parliament had special session at mid night of June 30th , 2017.

GST would replace most indirect taxes currently in pla-ce such as:

Central Taxes• Central Excise Duty [including additional excise duties,

excise duty under the Medicinal and Toilet Preparations (Excise Duties) Act, 1955].

• Service tax• Additional Customs Duty (CVD)• Special Additional Duty of Customs,„SAD” • Central Sales Tax ( levied by the Centre and collected

by the States)• Central surcharges and cesses (relating to supply of

goods and services)

State Taxes• Value Added Tax• Octroy and Entry Tax • Purchase Tax• Luxury Tax• Taxes on lottery, betting & gambling• State cesses and surcharges

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INDIA

Prudent Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd, IndiaAlda Dhingra, Email: aldadhingra@prudentbrokers.com

I would like to inform you that the Indian Government is transitioning from various types of taxes, such as Service Tax and Value Added Tax, to a nationwide, uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime expected to become effective from 1 July 2017. Insurance premiums that currently attract a Service Tax component of 15% will be subject to a GST of 18% from 1 July 2017. This additional cost should be factored into global insurance programs that will be implemented in India from 1 July 2017. Further, any fees paid to Prudent Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd from 1 July 2017 should factor the GST of 18% and not 15%.

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J.B. Boda & Co. PVT. Ltd, IndiaAgriculture Flyer “Blossom” July 2017

INDIA

J.B. Boda & Co. PVT. Ltd, Indiawww.jbboda.netAgriculture Flyer “Blossom” July 2017Source: http://www3.asiainsurancereview.com

Farm insurance premiums rise by almost 300 % to US $ 3.2 Billion

Crop insurance business in India, driven by the Government-backed Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) saw a 288 % growth in premiums for the financial year ended March 2017 (Fy 17).

The segment saw premiums of INR 20,611 crore (USD 3.2 billion) in FY 17 as compared to INR 5,310 crore (USD 804.55 Million) collected in FY 16. Data from the General Insurance Council showed that farm insurance had a market share of 5.5 % in FY 16 that grew to 16.1 % in FY 17.

Privately held insurers collected premiums of INR 9,865 crore (USD 1,494 Million) in the crop segment while public-sec-tor General Insurers collected INR 3,683 crore (USD 558 Million). Agriculture Insurance Corporation of India (AIC) col-lected INR 7,064 crore (USD 1,070 Million) in FY 17.

The PMFBY scheme will see further growth this year as the government has announced a higher Budget allocation of INR 9.000 crore (USD 1,363 Million) for the scheme.

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USA

Ames & Goughhttp://www.amesgough.com/IN U.S.A., LEGAL MALPRACTICE CLAIMS STABILIZE, BUT REMAIN ABOVE PRE-RECESSION LEVELS

Survey by unison partner Ames & Gough

Finds Costs to Defend Claims Continue to Rise

The number of new malpractice claims brought against law firms in the U.S. is stabilizing, but remains well above historical experience in years preceding the 2007 - 2009 economic recession. A new study by insurance broker Ames & Gough finds most leading legal malpractice insurers saw their claims level off in 2016 as the cost to de-fend claims continued to escalate. In its seventh annual survey of lawyers’ professional liability claims, Ames & Gough examined the trend by polling nine of the leading lawyers’ professional liability insurance companies that on a combined basis provide insurance to approximately 80 percent of the Am Law 100 firms, a listing of the largest law firms in the U.S.

Challenging times for many U.S. law firms. As Ames & Gough conducted its survey, law firms throughout the U.S. have been working to navigate a rapidly evolving market environment, a remnant from the “Great Recession.” As a result of flat demand, reduced productivity and client pushback, many firms have struggled to sustain growth and maintain profitability.

In order to remain competitive and relevant, many firms have been on a multi-year quest to cut costs; expand beyond their core practices into areas where they may have less experience; and merge with other firms to pre-serve or grow market share.

At the same time, law firms face increasingly complex operating challenges. These include cyber risks and data security issues, both in protecting confidential client information from hackers and in meeting their clients’ more rigorous data security requirements.

Against this backdrop, even as the number of malpractice claims brought against law firms was flat in 2016, the severity of these claims continued to be high; all nine insurers surveyed had claims with reserves over US$500,000.

For the third consecutive year, six of the insurers reported having 21 or more such claims. And in the past two years, the same number participated in paying a claim of US$50 million or more, including one with a claim excee-ding US$100 million.

Eileen Garczynski, Senior Vice President and Partner, Ames & Gough

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Conflicts trigger most claims

In every year the survey has been conducted, insurers have cited conflicts of interest (including perceived con-flicts) as the most common alleged legal malpractice error. This year was no exception; eight of the nine insurers surveyed cited conflicts as the first or second biggest leading cause of legal malpractice claims.

“As the legal landscape changes through mergers, acquisitions and lateral hiring, firms run the risk of increased conflicts,” said Eileen Garczynski, senior vice president and partner, Ames & Gough. “Too often, conflicts are an afterthought when attorneys move from firm to firm; and even when conflicts surface they are often ignored or overlooked. And that’s when they become costly.”

From an insurance perspective, the hiring firm should ask lateral hires for documentation of the insurance cover-age maintained by their former firms. Make sure these attorneys report any potential claims to their former firm’s insurer before bringing the matters to your firm.

Cyber events, a growing area of concern.

Five of the nine insurers polled saw more cyber-related legal malpractice claims this year than in prior years. Of those, four indicated most of the claims involved hackers.

“With cyber threats widespread, many law firms are actively sharing best practices for cyber security and evalua-ting cyber/network security insurance,” said Ms. Garczynski. “Besides providing key coverages not included in the typical lawyers’ professional liability Insurance policy, cyber-liability insurance policies tailored to law firms can be structured to protect the firm’s professional liability policy limits.”

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Among practice areas, business transactions is source of most malpractice claims. Among individual practice areas, insurers participating in the survey cited business transactions as the source of most legal malpractice claims for the second consecutive year, followed by corporate & securities, and trusts and estates.

Rising costs to defend claims. This year, the nine insurers surveyed unanimously experienced an increase in the cost to defend legal malpractice claims. Claim complexity and e-discovery are two clear drivers of this trend. Along with the increased cost to defend legal malpractice claims, the hourly rates insurers pay defense counsel also rose again. While rates vary by location and due to other factors, the typical average rate insurers pay defense counsel con-tinues to increase. Five of the nine insurers polled pay hourly rates between US$200 - US$300. Two others pay between US$300 - US$500, and two pay, on average, more than US$550 per hour. The insurers participating in the Ames & Gough survey were: AXIS, BRIT, CNA, Catlin, Huntersure, Ironshore, Mar-kel, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and QBE. Copies of the survey, Lawyers’ Professional Liability Claims Trends: 2017, may be obtained free of charge by emailing requests to: info@amesgough.com. Those requesting the survey should include their name, title, affiliation, and phone number, and state “LPL Claims Survey 2017” in the subject line.

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Adams & Son, Inc.Doug Adams, Email: dadams@adamsins.net

Many of the mother companies based outside of the U.S. send their people to the U.S. to work for short-periods of time, but longer than a couple of weeks.

In those cases, the U.S. daughter company finds it is cheaper to house the employee visitors/temporary visitors in apartments and corporate housing vs. a hotel. Many times the daughter company leases or rents the apart-ment in the company name as the company is paying for it.

It would be much easier to place this cover for the visitors if the lease or rental is in the name of the visitor. The “renters” policy that would be placed for them would afford them personal liability and also contents cover for their stay.  The daughter company or mother company can, of course, reimburse the visiting employee the costs.

Such rental policies would cost somewhere between $150 - $500 per year on average.

In the past, many of these rentals are listed as another location on the property/liability corporate insurance.  The U.S. underwriters are now checking, and if they find the location is habitational  and not business operations, they are refusing to insure the apartment or asking that it be taken off the corporate cover.

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COLOMBIA

CORRECOL S.A.Enrique Acevedo Schwabe,Email: EAcevedo@correcol.com

Risk Management

Generali sells Colombia business to TalanxGenerali Group has agreed to sell its insurance business in Colombia to German rival Talanx Group for about €30 mil-lion ($34.5 million).

The property insurance unit, Generali Colombia Seguros Generales S.A., and the life insurance unit, Generali Co-lombia Vida Compañia de Seguros S.A., have combined premium volume of about €59 million ($67.9 million) and pretax profit of about €2 million ($2.3 million), according to a Talanx statement on Wednesday.

The business is comprised of about 70% property insurance and 30% life insurance, the statement said.

“From a fronting perspective, the new companies will also help Talanx underwrite business with the industrial lines di-vision in Colombia,” the statement said.

The acquired companies are headquartered in Bogota and have eight branch offices.

Generali appointed bankers to sell its units Colombia and units some other Latin American markets earlier this year as it decided to leave markets where it lacked scale.

“These transactions are another step forward in the rebalan-cing of Generali Group geographical presence across the world,” said Frédéric de Courtois, Generali’s group CEO global business lines and international, in a statement.

Talanx’s insurance units include Hannover Re S.E. and HDI Global S.E.

http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20170719/NEWS06/912314592/Generali-sells-Colombia-business-to-Talanx?utm_campaign=BI20170720BreakingNewsAlert

Times

GERMANY

OSKAR SCHUNCK GmbH & Co. KG Julia Gottschalk, Email: GottschalkJ@schunck.de

Thomas Wicke – New Managing and Sales Director

SCHUNCK GROUP recruited Thomas Wicke as a further Managing Director as well as Sales and Client Director

Thomas Wicke has been appointed Managing Director as well as Sales and Client Director as of July 1st, 2017. In his new function, he takes on the main responsibility for the further expansion of client service and client relationship management of SCHUNCK GROUP.

Thomas Wicke (43) has longstanding professional ex-perience in sales and distribution. He holds a degree in Business Administration and started his career in se-veral different posi-tions and functions with the former insurance broker Jauch & Hübener. In 2003, after finishing his BA studies at the universities of both Kiel and Oslo, he started working for Aon Risk Solutions, where he was later given the responsibility of mana-ging the Sales & Distribution Department of North and Central Germany for the industrial and commercial lines.

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Before joining SCHUNCK GROUP, Thomas Wicke was Head of Specialties and Member of the Executive Board at Aon Risk Solutions.

“The fact that we could win such an experienced Sa-les professional for our team also contributes to our confidence that we have taken the right decisions to redefine our strategic orientation about two years ago.

We have a very positive mindset regarding the future and are extremely motivated. That is why we can look forward to a successful collaboration in our „manage-ment quartet“, consisting of our partner Albert K. O. Schunck, Klaus Rückel and the both of us“, explains Peter Kollatz, Managing Director and person respon-sible for operational issues within the Claims Service and Legal Departments.

Thomas Wicke adds: “I am looking forward to my new responsibilities and my new colleagues and am proud to have been given the opportunity to work with a fa-mily-owned company so rich in tradition. My special thanks, however, go to Albert K. O. Schunck for placing his trust in me so that we can jointly pave the way for the company’s future in the digital era with all its chal-lenges for the insurance industry.“

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ITALY

CARE International Insurance BrokerMatteo Giulio Albertini, Email: matteoalbertini@brokercare.com

International Insurance Placement

A brief history of incoterms… waiting for 2020

Three letters, inflected in different versions, which have changed the world, by clarifying and facilitating trade at a global level.

Incoterms (an acronym for International Commercial Terms) have celebrated their first 80 years in 2016: establis-hed in 1936 by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), albeit optional, they are currently the most com-mon conventional system used to clearly identify roles and liabilities of buyers and sellers and as such are also key for the entire transport and logistics industry. Marine cargo insurance strongly depends on them and an in-depth knowledge is mandatory for any specialised broker: in order to help our clients, we also created our own table (picture above).

The first Incoterms edition of 1936 was a natural development of the ICC, founded in Paris 1919 by industrialists, traders and visionary businessmen in order to strengthen and harmonise the global economy following the de-vastations of WWI.

In the following decades, Incoterms have been regularly amended and updated, especially following WWII, in order to cope with the exponential growth of world trade and the introduction of new conveyances: in 1953, for instance, with the new Free On Rail/Truck terms for rail/road transport or in 1976, with new clarifications concer-ning Free On Board terms for air transport. In the 1980s new updates have been introduced in order to address the rise of containerization and in the 1990s special attention has been paid to intermodal transport and the early forms of electronic correspondence.

As of today, Incoterms 2010 are in force, following their introduction on January 1st 2011 but the global scenery is continuously changing and therefore in Paris the ICC is already preparing the 2020 version, with the precious help of lawyers, traders and also insurers (IUMI is part of the working group). Some previews and details should come up in the next few months.

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We all now understand the havoc that cyber criminals can cause to organisations and businesses around the globe. What can we be doing to safeguard against the next such attack?

Businesses have put trust in software updates and the like but the risk of an interruption or loss of data seem to remain. Mo-reover, if this truth weren’t bad enough there is now a new regulation that will punish those who fail to safeguard personal information too.

The Data Protection Act will be updated in May 2018 by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that will require any business who lose personal data to report the incident to the Information Commissioner, who may then levy a fine of up to €20m or 4% of global turnover, whichever is the greater.

What then should businesses do right now?

Some cyber risks can be transferred. Cyber insurance has developed over recent years and is now more accessible providing wider cover to protect your business. Cover to replace lost revenue and additional costs following a loss are available at competitive terms.

Insurance can’t however fund fines nor many of the reputational issues that will flow following the new GDPR requirements from May next year. Cyber Security services and staff training are some of the steps others are taking to protect themselves from cyber criminals.

The attacks vary and change so protections also need to be dynamic. Cyber security services can involve 24 hour monitoring of your systems, searching for the very latest threats.

The recent attack started with emails that staff failed to recognise as danger. We need to train staff to look for the signs that these emails pose a threat and what to do next.

We all appreciate that we may be struck by lightning but that the probability is tiny. We equally need to appreciate that criminals will seek to damage our organisation and that now is inevitable.

UNITED KINGDOM

James Hallam LimitedGary Jago, Email: gary.jago@jameshallam.co.uk

Times

POLAND

MENTOR S.A. (International Office)Szymon Szmak, Email: szymon.szmak@mentor.pl

To read the full version of this paper, please follow the link:https://piu.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WU-2016-04-08-Szmak-en.pdf(“Insurance Review” 4/2016, Polish Insurance Association (PIU) – an entity representing all insurers operating in Poland)

Provision of legal services in Poland – selected objects of the recent regulation

Legal services are a crucial element of the rule of law. Terms governing the provision of such services are a wide subject that includes a plethora of interesting problems. Recently, Polish lawmakers have enacted laws on two different frame-works of legal services – free legal aid (nieodpłatna pomoc prawna) and legal expenses insurance (ubezpieczenie ochro-ny prawnej). The legislation on legal expenses insurance was extended as a result of the implementation of the Solvency II Directive into Polish law. At the beginning of 2016, a new Act of Parliament introduced a free legal aid scheme. Although the recipients of the two types of services are different, both categories fulfil similar functions and improve the legal awa-reness of Poles.

They also have a significant impact on the provision of legal services in Poland. In both cases, the key objective is to im-prove the situation of insureds or free legal aid clients in the event of a dispute. The detailed rules relating to the two fra-meworks have been adopted only recently and as such they are yet to be thoroughly examined.

,

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Legal Expenses Insurance

The original Polish statutory regulation of legal ex-penses insurance, adopted in 2003, has proven to be incomplete and insufficient as compared to the pro-gressive development of this section of the domestic insurance market. Such an important legal loophole could not have been filled by extremely sketchy juri-sprudence. The only provisions directly applicable to legal expenses insurance were included in Article 14 of the Insurance Activity Act (Ustawa o działalności ubezpieczeniowej). These provisions were adopted by the Polish Parliament as a consequence of the implementation of the requirements of the Council Directive 87/344/EEC of 22 June 1987 on the coor-dination of laws, regulations and administrative provi-sions relating to legal expenses insurance. However, the Act failed to regulate essential aspects related to legal expenses insurance: it did not provide its defini-tion or any rules governing the principal performance delivered under a legal expenses insurance contract or loss adjustment principles.

Upon the implementation of the Directive of the Eu-ropean Parliament and of the Council 2009/138 /EC of 25 November 2009 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance, known as the “Solvency II” Directive, the Polish legislator ex-panded the regulation of legal expenses insurance, addressing certain legislative problems associated with the original 2003 regulation.

Construction of the definition of legal expenses in-surance, exclusions of legal protection provided as a part of third party liability insurance, the right to the free choice of a lawyer or determination of the performance delivered under a contract of insurance influence the practice of provision of legal services under legal expenses insurance policies. In order to draw a complete picture of this complicated concept, it is important to understand how all these questions have so far been addressed by the Polish legislator. In the case of legal expenses insurance, the availabili-ty of clear definitions improves the certainty of rights and obligations of insurers and insureds. In this way, insureds’ rights will enjoy equal protection under po-licies offered by different insurers, also in respect of the provisions of legal services.

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Free Legal Aid

The primary purpose of the introduction of the free legal aid scheme was to improve access to legal services at a pre-litigation stage in most popular types of legal proceedings. The aid is available for the persons who are unable to pay for the services of professional lawyers, mainly because of a difficult financial situation.

The basic features of this new regulation – the objective and subjective scope of free legal aid – are crucial for determining whether the new framework will succeed or fail. For financial reasons, the legislator was forced to limit this scope by singling out the key legal areas in which help is given to the persons who need free legal aid the most. However, even though the establis-hment of the legal aid scheme is indeed a step in a right direction, an excessive limitation of the scheme’s availability may pro-duce the opposite effect and lead to its insufficient effectiveness. Given the above, this issue should be carefully reconsidered based primarily on the empirical data on the functioning of the free legal aid system in the past.

Final conclusions

Obviously, and differently from the concept introduced by the Act of 5 August 2015, the main function of legal expenses in-surance is not to improve access to justice, but here both models seem to complement each other and contribute, although to a varying degree, to the realisation of the right to court. These two mechanisms have appeared in the social reality of Poland only recently and yet the regulation of legal expenses insurance has already substantially been amended (as shown above – for a good cause). Certainly, the Free Legal Aid Act will also be further amended. The proposals put forward by the scholarship, legal practitioners and members of the public, as well as the conclusions of foreign researchers (primarily from Germany, which is a legal system similar to that of Poland), will hopefully be taken into account during the work on such amendments, effectively serving the purpose of improving access to justice.

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On May 19, 2014, the plaintiff, Mr Teerakiat Charoenbunditsakul, a political science student who was also working as a wai-ter, was bringing a bottle of Est cola to a customer, it suddenly exploded and glass fragments struck his face. In addition to facial wounds, Mr Teerakit lost his right eye after doctors diagnosed the lens had been torn. Mr Teerakiat later sued Sermsuk, demanding 10.9 million baht in compensation under the 2008 Act on Liability for Unsafe Products.

The court in Bangkok said the evidence, including closed-circuit camera footage, clearly showed Mr Teerakiat was holding the bottle in an ordinary manner, when the incident happened. As well, it said, a subsequent 30-minute random test on two other bottles was not enough proof that every bottle was safe.

The case should serve as a wakeup call for consumers who are encouraged to take legal action to protect their rights, said Thanakrit Voratanatchakul, a prosecutor with the Attorney General‘s Office.

„Businesses may not be held accountable only when the damaged party is aware that a product is unsafe, or the damage is caused by inappropriate use or storage“, Thanakrit safe.“

The consumer protection procedures law also allows the court to ban the sale of the remaining unsafe products or order products recalled until flaws have been addressed. However, the court did not exercise this power in this case.

„The case is interesting. Even though the law and the consumer protection procedures law have been in effect for almost 10 years, very few cases involving large business operators and consumers reach the court,“ said Mr Thanakrit. „It sets an example so people can feel more confident about fighting large companies to protect their rights.“

ThailandBangkok Post

EuropAsia International Insurance Broker Co., Ltd.Urs Werner Zimmermann,Email: urs@europasia-insurance.com

Est bottler told to pay B2.4m to half-blind student

The Bangkok Civil Court ruled on Friday Sermsuk Plc, the bottler of Est soft drinks, are to pay 2.4 million baht, plus three years’ interest (7.5 % interest annually) from the date of the accident, to a student who lost his eye when an Est bottle exploded in his hands three years ago.

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