Agency work · performers engaged ·. The contract chain
Liability insurance for an artist management agency
An artist agency stands between the client and the performer. When a booking falls through, the agency is almost always approached first, and that is when it becomes clear which part of that claim the AVB does not cover at all.
- Several insurers compared objectively
- 9.5 customer rating for a new policy
- AFM licence 12016589
- Personal 072 - 509 24 56, weekdays 9–17
Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een artiestenbureau.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Public and employers' liability insurance (AVB) covers injury and property damage caused by your agency or your staff: a production manager who hits a mirrored wall on site, a visitor who falls over equipment your crew put down, damage to a rented office. That is not, however, the risk for which you are most often held liable. The core risk of an agency is that a booking does not go ahead, that the wrong act turns up or that agreements are not kept.
Those claims concern pure financial loss: the client loses money without anyone being injured or anything being broken. The AVB is not intended for that. For errors in advice, agency work and contracts you need professional indemnity insurance. Penalties and fixed sums you have accepted in your own terms and conditions or in a booking contract are usually excluded there as well: liability accepted by contract that goes further than the law falls outside the cover.
The third point is the chain. If you engage self-employed performers and technicians to carry out your assignment, the client can hold you liable for their mistakes under Article 6:171 of the Dutch Civil Code. Set out in your agreements that every party engaged has liability insurance of its own and ask for evidence. Without that, the risk moves from the performer to your agency.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
Where an agency comes unstuck
Four points on which an artist agency's cover is tested.
Agent or contracting party
If you act as an agent, the contract comes into being between the performer and the client and your own liability is limited to your agency work. If you act as the contracting party who supplies the performance, you are liable for the whole result. Make sure your contracts and your policy describe the same role. A difference between the two is the most common cause of dispute.
Performers' mistakes come back to you
If a performer you booked damages the venue or a visitor is injured, the client approaches its contracting party first. Under Article 6:171 of the Dutch Civil Code you can be liable for non-subordinates carrying out your assignment. Include an obligation to insure and an indemnity in the booking agreement, and actually check these with new acts.
Your own staff on site
If your agency works with production staff, trainees or casual workers, the duty of care under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Codeapplies, and through subsection 4 to hired-in workers as well. On festival sites and during night-time get-ins and get-outs that is a real risk of injury. Check that the employers' liability section is included and that casual workers are in the wage bill declared.
Rights, images and promotion
Using photographs, music clips or promotional material without permission produces a claim for infringement of rights. That is not personal injury or damage to property and therefore not an AVB loss; moreover, liability insurers almost always exclude infringement of intellectual property expressly. Arrange licences in writing and keep permissions with the act's file.
What does your premium depend on?
- Role in the chain: acting as an agent weighs differently from producing yourself
- Number of bookings per year: and the type of events
- Payroll and number of employees: the basis for employers' liability
- Own production on site: get-ins and technical work raise the risk
- Bookings abroad: determines the territorial limits and the applicable law
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A visitor trips over a cable ramp your production assistant laid alongside the stage | Yes | No |
| A technician you engaged drops a spotlight on the auditorium floor | Yes | No |
| A visitor is injured because the performer you booked jumps into the crowd | Yes | No |
| The client loses ticket income because the act booked does not turn up | No | Provided that |
| You record the booking on the wrong date and the venue stands empty that evening | No | Yes |
| A hired sound system is damaged during a production by your agency | No | No |
If it is about injury or something broken, look at the AVB. If it is about money someone else loses, look at the BAV.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A booked performer cancels. Does the AVB cover the client's loss?
No. A lost event or a more expensive replacement produces financial loss and that falls outside public and employers' liability insurance. Whether you have to bear it depends on your role and your conditions: as an agent you can exclude an obligation to achieve a result, as a contracting party you cannot. A professional indemnity insurance can cover the part arising from a mistake by your agency.
Do we have to require performers to be insured themselves?
That is sensible and in many cases necessary. Without cover of the performer's own, damage to the venue or injury to a visitor ends up at your agency through the contract chain. Include an obligation to insure in the booking agreement, ask for a certificate of insurance every year and set out the minimum amount you require.
We also organise events ourselves. Is the AVB enough then?
For ordinary liability towards visitors often yes, but organising an event brings risks that the running AVB does not cover, such as cancellation, weather and damage to hired structures. For that, look at events insurance and report your role as organiser to your AVB insurer, because it changes your insured capacity.
What happens if we have not disclosed a risk?
When taking out the insurance you have to declare everything relevant to the assessment. That follows from Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code. If it turns out afterwards that you did not declare part of your activities, the insurer can reduce or refuse the payout under Article 7:930 DCC. Report extensions such as your own productions or bookings abroad in the meantime, therefore.
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