Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 29 April 2015 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Rechtbank te Rotterdam — Netherlands) — Nationale-Nederlanden Levensverzekering Mij NV v Hubertus Wilhelmus Van Leeuwen
(Case C-51/13) 1
(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Direct life assurance — Directive 92/96/EEC — Article 31(3) — Information to be provided to the policyholder — Obligation for the insurer to provide further information on costs and premiums under general unwritten rules of national law)
Language of the case: Dutch
Referring court
Rechtbank te Rotterdam
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: Nationale-Nederlanden Levensverzekering Mij NV
Defendant: Hubertus Wilhelmus Van Leeuwen
Operative part of the judgment
1. Article 31(3) of Council Directive 92/96/EEC of 10 November 1992 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to direct life assurance and amending Directives 79/267/EEC and 90/619/EEC (third life assurance directive) must be interpreted as not precluding an insurance company, on the basis of general principles of domestic law such as the ‘open and/or unwritten rules’ at issue in the main proceedings, from being required to send to policyholders certain information additional to that listed in Annex II to that directive, provided that the information required is clear, accurate and necessary for the policyholder to understand the essential characteristics of the commitment and that it ensures a sufficient level of legal certainty, which it is for the referring court to ascertain;
2. The consequences under domestic law of a failure to provide that information are, in principle, irrelevant as regards the conformity of the obligation to provide information with Article 31(3) of Directive 92/96.
________________________1 OJ C 141, 18.5.2013.