Judgment;Summary — ECLI:EU:C:2020:126
Date: 2020-02-27
Language of the case: Polish
Court formation: Eighth Chamber
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Freedom to provide services;Area of freedom, security and justice;Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Poland

Translation C-25/19 — 1 
Case C-25/19 
Request for a preliminary ruling 
Date lodged: 
15 January 2019 
Referring court: 
Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu (Poland) 
Date of the decision to refer: 
13 December 2018 
Applicant: 
Corporis Sp. z o.o., established in Bielsko-Biała 
Defendant: 
Gefion Insurance A/S, established in Copenhagen 
  
[…] ORDER 
13 December 2018 
the Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu X Gospodarczy Odwoławczy (Regional Court, 
Poznań, Poland, 10th Commercial Appeals Division) 
[…] 
in the case brought by Corporis, a limited-liability company established in 
Bielsko-Biała, 
against Gefion Insurance A/S, established in Copenhagen, 
concerning payment 
[…] 
decides: 
1. to refer the following question of law to the Court of Justice of the European 
Union pursuant to Article 267 TFEU: ‘Should Article 152(1) and (2), in 
EN 
REQUEST FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING OF 13. 12. 2018 — CASE C-25/19 
 
2  
conjunction with Article 151, of Directive 2009/138/EC and recital 8 of 
Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 be interpreted as meaning that the 
representation of a non-life insurance undertaking by an appointed 
representative includes the receipt of a document which initiates court 
proceedings for damages in respect of a road traffic accident?’ 
2. […] [Or. 2] 
STATEMENT OF REASONS 
1. Subject matter of the proceedings: 
The Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu, 10th Commercial Appeals Division, adjudicating 
as the court of second instance in complaint proceedings, […] has serious doubts 
as to the interpretation of EU law. In proceedings pending before the Sąd 
Rejonowy Poznań-Stare Miasto w Poznaniu (District Court, Poznań-Old Town, 
Poznań) […], the applicant brought a claim for damages against the defendant in 
respect of a road traffic accident. The owner of the vehicle involved in the 
accident had assigned damages to the applicant. The applicant, who has 
professional legal representation, named Gefion Insurance A/S, with its seat in 
Copenhagen, as the defendant in the lawsuit, that is, the insurance company of the 
party that caused the road traffic accident. The applicant also pointed out that 
liability for damages had been assumed by Crawford Polska, a limited-liability 
company established in Warsaw, acting on behalf of and for the benefit of the 
defendant, and that that company had partially satisfied its claims for damages 
prior to the court proceedings. Before the document initiating court proceedings 
was served on the opposite party, the applicant’s main claim had been satisfied. 
However, the applicant still claimed payment of PLN 157.41 plus interest and 
court fees. 
Therefore, the Sąd Rejonowy Poznań-Stare Miasto w Poznaniu set a date for the 
hearing and ordered that the document initiating court proceedings be served on 
the other party. The letter was sent to the defendant (Gefion Insurance A/S, 
established in Copenhagen) pursuant to the provisions of Regulation 
No 1393/2007. The defendant refused to accept the document on the ground that it 
was drafted in Polish. For this reason, by order of 20 July 2018, the Sąd Rejonowy 
Poznań-Stare Miasto w Poznaniu summoned the applicant to make an advance 
payment of PLN 5 000 towards the costs of translating the documents for the 
defendant, stating that otherwise the proceedings would be suspended. 
In response, the applicant pointed out that the defendant was Gefion Insurance 
A/S, established in Copenhagen, which was represented by its claims 
representative, that is, Crawford Polska, a limited-liability company established in 
Warsaw, and that the representative should provide legal representation before the 
Polish court; thus the language of the proceedings should be Polish, and therefore, 
it submitted, there were no grounds for requesting an advance payment towards 
the translation of the documents. As evidence, the applicant submitted information 
CORPORIS 
 
3 
provided by the Polish supervisory authority — the Rzecznik Finansowy 
(Financial Ombudsman). The applicant did not make the advance payment. 
By an order of 13 September 2018, the Sąd Rejonowy Poznań-Stare Miasto w 
Poznaniu suspended the proceedings pursuant to Article 177(1)(6) of the Kodeks 
Postępowania Cywilnego (the Code of Civil Procedure) as it was not possible to 
continue the proceedings on account of the applicant’s failure to make an advance 
payment towards the translation of the documents for the defendant. 
The applicant lodged a complaint against the above order, requesting that it be set 
aside and that the defendant be ordered to pay the costs of the complaint 
proceedings, including the costs of legal representation, to the applicant. The 
applicant alleged that the appealed order infringed the following provisions: 
[Or. 3] 
- Article 177(1)(6) of the Code of Civil Procedure, by reason of its deficient 
application and the suspension of proceedings, notwithstanding the fact that 
it was possible to continue the proceedings in the case; 
- Article 208(1)(1)(b) of the Ustawa z dnia 11 września 2015 r. o działalności 
ubezpieczeniowej i reasekuracyjnej (Law of 11 September 2015 on the 
Business of Insurance and Reinsurance) through a failure to apply it to the 
case. 
2. Polish legislation 
a. Ustawa z dnia 17 listopada 1964 r. Kodeks postępowania cywilnego (Law of 
17 November 1964 — Code of Civil Procedure, ‘the CCP’) ([…] Journal of 
Laws [Dz. U.] of 2018, item 1360, as amended): 
- Article 133(2) — Pleadings or rulings addressed to a legal person or to an 
unincorporated organisation shall be served on the body authorised to 
represent them before a court or on an employee authorised to take receipt of 
pleadings; 
- Article 177(1)(6) — The court may, of its own motion, suspend proceedings 
if the proceedings cannot be continued as a result of the applicant’s address 
not having been indicated or having been indicated incorrectly or as a result 
of the applicant’s failing to indicate within the prescribed period the 
defendant’s address or such details as would enable the court to determine 
the numbers referred to in Article 2081, or as a result of the applicant’s 
failure to observe other orders; 
- Article 182(1), first sentence — The court shall discontinue suspended 
proceedings upon a joint motion from the parties or upon a motion from the 
heir as well as for the reasons indicated in Article 177(1)(5) and (6), if the 
motion to resume proceedings is not lodged within one year from the date of 
the decision to suspend proceedings; 
REQUEST FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING OF 13. 12. 2018 — CASE C-25/19 
 
4  
b. Law of 11 September 2015 on the Business of Insurance and Reinsurance 
([…] Journal of Laws [Dz. U.] of 2018, item 999, as amended): 
- Article 208(1)(1)(b) — A foreign insurance company with its seat in a 
Member State of the European Union other than the Republic of Poland, 
which intends to engage in the business of insurance in the territory of the 
Republic of Poland with respect to the types of insurance referred to under 
Group 10 in Section II of the Annex to the Law, with the exception of 
carrier’s civil liability insurance, other than through a branch, under the 
freedom to provide services, shall submit to the supervisory authority, 
through the supervisory authority of the State in which it is established: (1) 
the names and addresses of the claims representatives authorised to represent 
it to the extent necessary to: (b) provide legal representation for the company 
in disputes before ordinary courts of law in Poland. 
3. Provisions of EU law 
a. Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union […]: [Or. 4] 
- […] [Article 267 TFEU cited in full]; 
b. Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 
25 November 2009 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance 
and Reinsurance (Solvency II) ([…]; […] OJ 2009 L 335, p. 1): 
- Article 151 Non-discrimination of persons pursuing claims 
The host Member State shall require the non-life insurance undertaking to 
ensure that persons pursuing claims arising out of events occurring in its 
territory are not placed in a less favourable situation as a result of the fact 
that the undertaking is covering a risk, other than carrier’s liability, 
classified under class 10 in Part A of Annex I by way of provision of 
services rather than through an establishment situated in that State. 
- Article 152 Representative 
1. For the purposes referred to in Article 151, the host Member State 
shall require the non-life insurance undertaking to appoint a representative 
resident or established in its territory who shall collect all necessary 
information in relation to claims, and shall possess sufficient powers to 
represent the undertaking in relation to persons suffering damage who could 
pursue claims, including the payment of such claims, and to represent it or, 
where necessary, to have it represented before the courts and authorities of 
that Member State in relation to those claims. 
That representative may also be required to represent the non-life insurance 
undertaking before the supervisory authorities of the host Member State with 
CORPORIS 
 
5 
regard to checking the existence and validity of motor vehicle liability 
insurance policies. [Or. 5] 
2. The host Member State shall not require that representative to 
undertake activities on behalf of the non-life insurance undertaking which 
appointed him other than those set out in paragraph 1. 
c. Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council of 13 November 2007 on the service in the Member States of 
judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (service 
of documents), and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1348/2000 ([…] 
OJ 2007 L 324, p. 79). 
-  Recital 8: This Regulation should not apply to service of a document 
on the party’s authorised representative in the Member State where the 
proceedings are taking place regardless of the place of residence of that 
party. 
4. The question referred. 
The purpose of the question referred by the Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu  is to 
obtain from the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmation of the 
national court’s position concerning the procedure for service of process with 
respect to claims arising from cross-border motor insurance. 
In the case in which the complaint was lodged with the Sąd Okręgowy w 
Poznaniu , service was effected pursuant to Regulation No 1393/2007, since the 
defendant indicated in the lawsuit was a Danish insurer. The court does not 
question the position of the lower court on the effectiveness of the addressee’s 
statement that he does not understand Polish. Translation of the documents served 
is necessary in order to respect the defendant’s rights of defence, and failure to 
translate those documents renders service ineffective, since those documents do 
not have a purely evidential function, but are necessary for understanding the 
subject matter of the claim and the cause of action (see judgment of the Court of 
Justice of 8 May 2008, Weiss und Partner, C-14/07, [EU:C:2008:264). 
The Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu has doubts as to the position of the court of first 
instance that the Danish insurer is the person on whom the pleadings should be 
served. 
On the one hand, it follows from the case-law of the Court of Justice that there are 
only two circumstances in which the service of a judicial document between 
Member States falls outside the scope of Regulation No 1393/2007 (see the 
judgment of the Court of Justice of 16 September 2015, Alpha Bank Cyprus Ltd v 
Dau Si Senh and Others, C-519/13, EU:C:2015:603, paragraph 68). One of those 
circumstances is where the person has appointed an authorised representative in 
the Member State in which the judicial proceedings are taking place. The Sąd 
Okręgowy w Poznaniu also has doubts concerning the interpretation of EU law 
REQUEST FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING OF 13. 12. 2018 — CASE C-25/19 
 
6  
given the wording of recital 8 of Regulation No 1393/2007, according to which 
the Regulation should not apply to the service of a document on the party’s 
authorised representative in the Member State where the proceedings are taking 
place regardless of the place of residence of that party. [Or. 6] 
On the other hand, the Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu observes that, under national 
law, pleadings, including lawsuits addressed to a legal person, are to be served on 
the body authorised to represent it before a court or on an employee authorised to 
take receipt of pleadings (Article 133(2) of the CCP). 
According to the information in the case file provided by a supervisory authority 
of the Republic of Poland — the Financial Ombudsman, the claims representative 
of the Danish insurer in Poland is a Polish corporation established in Warsaw. 
That information was provided on the basis of national provisions which transpose 
the provisions of Directive 2009/138/EC. 
Consequently, the court of second instance has reasonable doubts as to whether 
the court of first instance correctly applied the provisions of Regulation 
No 1393/2007 with respect to the service of documents on a Danish insurer which 
has a claims representative in Poland within the meaning of Article 152(1) and 
(2), in conjunction with Article 151, of Directive 2009/138/EC. The referring 
court recognises the purpose of those provisions, which is to ensure the proper 
functioning of cross-border insurance agreements in view of the increasing 
mobility of citizens of the European Union (recital 76 of Directive 2009/138/EC). 
That purpose is enshrined in Articles 152 and 153 of the Directive, which are 
intended to prevent discrimination against persons seeking compensation. While 
the aforementioned entity is a representative authorised under national and EU 
laws to represent the foreign insurer before the courts, the Court of Justice has to 
rule on whether it is also an authorised representative appointed by the addressee 
in the Member State in which the proceedings are taking place and, consequently, 
whether the aforementioned EU laws should be interpreted as meaning that the 
representation of a non-life insurance undertaking by an appointed representative 
includes the receipt of a document which initiates court proceedings for damages 
in respect of a road traffic accident. 
An analysis of the case-law of the Court of Justice related to the involvement of 
branches of a foreign undertaking in court proceedings indicates that even where a 
branch is an unincorporated body, service to its address should be treated as 
service to the address of the foreign undertaking ([…] judgment of the Court of 
Justice [of 18 March 1981], Blanckaert & Willems, 139/80, [EU:C:1981:70]). This 
position is also accepted in the national case-law […]. However, the case pending 
before the Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu does not concern a branch of a foreign 
undertaking. 
The answer to the question referred will have a significant overall impact on the 
costs of cross-border court proceedings (including, among others, necessary 
translations of documents) and in particular on the complaint proceedings pending 
CORPORIS 
 
7 
before the Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu. [Or. 7] In the event of an affirmative 
answer to the question referred, it will be necessary to set aside the decision under 
appeal in the main proceedings and to serve the lawsuit again — on the 
defendant’s claims representative in Poland. […] 
In the light of the foregoing, the Sąd Okręgowy w Poznaniu has decided as in the 
operative part of the present order.