New Legal Requirement To Have Personal Liability Insurance When Skiing in Italy

A new law due to come into force on 1st January2022 requires all skiers and boarders to have insurance when they go on the country's slopes.

The law is particularly focussed on the need for a policy that covers your liability if you cause an injury to someone else, or someone else's property, on the slopes.

Known as decree 40 of 2021, it was actually passed last spring when Italian ski slopes were in lockdown, but only comes into force in the new year.

As part of the ruling, it is the responsibility off ski lift operators to ensure that a policy covering third party liability is available as an add on to the ski ticket price when a pass is purchased.

Anyone found not to have insurance on the slopes will be liable to a fine of €100 to €150 and the confiscation of their lift pass.

Many travel insurance policies do include third party liability, but it's important to check your policy covers accidents and injuries cause to others on the slopes.

Surveys have found that about a quarter of British skiers are currently believed to travel on a ski holiday each winter with inadequate travel insurance that does not cover winter sports, or don't have travel insurance at all.

Just checked my policy (Nationwide Flex Plus ) and I have personalt liability cover....whoopie!

daved wrote:Just checked my policy (Nationwide Flex Plus ) and I have personal liability cover....whoopie!

Great! I've got the same policy so thanks for letting me know, I won't need to actually look at it now. Although I do need to book a trip to ski back in Italy again so that I can really enjoy knowing that I have that benefit...

Legislative decree no. 40 - Winter sports safety regulations of 28 February 2021 largely replaces law no. 363 - Safety rules for downhill and cross-country skiing in winter sports of 24 December 2003. Italy also has several regional laws on winter sports, article 40 of the new decree states that the regions have 1 year to adapt their regulations to the provisions of the new decree, so decree no. 40 might not come into force in some regions until 2023.

Many of the provisions of the new decree have lots of potential for affecting the validity of ski insurance e.g. skiing under the influence, skiing off piste without a transceiver, probe and shovel and skiing a black piste without having a high level of physical and technical ability are all offences under the new decree. If you injure yourself or someone else whilst doing any of the above your insurance company might reject your claim.

SwingBeep wrote:Many of the provisions of the new decree have lots of potential for affecting the validity of ski insurance e.g. skiing under the influence, skiing off piste without a transceiver, probe and shovel and skiing a black piste without having a high level of physical and technical ability are all offences under the new decree. If you injure yourself or someone else whilst doing any of the above your insurance company might reject your claim.

That is very interesting, thanks SwingBeep. Not sure what to think really. I suppose on the one hand it gives insurance companies an excuse to reject more claims, on the other it puts the onus on the skier/boarder to behave responsibly? Making a judgement call on whether I still have the "physical and technical ability" to ski a particular black run as I get older could be quite a grey area. I'd set off thinking I was OK but then if I hurt myself on it maybe the insurance company would disagree with my thinking.

Of course it could mean a few colour blind reds?

J2SkiNews wrote:

SwingBeep wrote:Many of the provisions of the new decree have lots of potential for affecting the validity of ski insurance e.g. skiing under the influence, skiing off piste without a transceiver, probe and shovel and skiing a black piste without having a high level of physical and technical ability are all offences under the new decree. If you injure yourself or someone else whilst doing any of the above your insurance company might reject your claim.

That is very interesting, thanks SwingBeep. Not sure what to think really. I suppose on the one hand it gives insurance companies an excuse to reject more claims, on the other it puts the onus on the skier/boarder to behave responsibly? Making a judgement call on whether I still have the "physical and technical ability" to ski a particular black run as I get older could be quite a grey area. I'd set off thinking I was OK but then if I hurt myself on it maybe the insurance company would disagree with my thinking.

A friend of mine was involved in a crash on the slopes in Austria a number of years ago and was sued by the other person involved. As part of the proceedings, the Court ordered that he go out on the slopes with an instructor who had to prepare a report on his level of competence :shock:

There are lawyers in Austria that specialise in skiing accidents https://www.raoe.at/leistungsangebot/zivilrecht/skiunfall/ you can take out insurance to cover the cost of bringing a case.

Article 28 of the Italian law states that; In the event of a collision between skiers, it shall be presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that each of them also contributed to the damage that may have occurred.

If it can be proved that you hadn't complied with some of the other articles you could be in a spot of bother.