Article 8
Assessment of inducements and inducement schemes
1.
An inducement or inducement scheme shall be considered to have a detrimental impact on the quality of the relevant service to the customer where it is of such a nature and scale that it provides an incentive to carry out insurance distribution activities in a way that is not in compliance with the obligation to act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with the best interests of the customer.
2.
For the purposes of assessing whether an inducement or inducement scheme has a detrimental impact on the quality of the relevant service to the customer, insurance intermediaries and insurance undertakings shall perform an overall analysis taking into account all relevant factors which may increase or decrease the risk of detrimental impact on the quality of the relevant service to the customer, and any organisational measures taken by the insurance intermediary or insurance undertaking carrying out distribution activities to prevent the risk of detrimental impact.
They shall, in particular, consider the following criteria:
(a)
whether the inducement or inducement scheme could provide an incentive to the insurance intermediary or insurance undertaking to offer or recommend a particular insurance product or a particular service to the customer despite the fact that the insurance intermediary or insurance undertaking would be able to offer a different insurance product or service which would better meet the customer's needs;
(b)
whether the inducement or inducement scheme is solely or predominantly based on quantitative commercial criteria or whether it takes into account appropriate qualitative criteria, reflecting compliance with applicable regulations, the quality of services provided to customers and customer satisfaction;
(c)
the value of the inducement paid or received in relation to the value of the product and the services provided;
(d)
whether the inducement is entirely or mainly paid at the moment of the conclusion of the insurance contract or extends over the whole term of that contract;
(e)
the existence of an appropriate mechanism for reclaiming the inducement in case the product lapses or is surrendered at an early stage or in case the interests of the customer have been harmed;
(f)
the existence of any form of variable or contingent threshold or any other kind of value accelerator which is unlocked by attaining a target based on volume or value of sales.