Injury and property damage
- Damage during work at the client
- Visitors and suppliers at the office
- Damage to servers and hardware
- Costs of legal defence
AVB · embedded software · staff
Public and employers' liability insurance (AVB) for software developers
A software company rarely causes visible damage, except when the code controls a machine or when you work at the client's premises. That is precisely where public and employers' liability insurance begins and ends.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor softwareontwikkelaars.
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 legal liability for injury to people and damage to property that your business causes to third parties, usually on the basis of tort under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. For a development company it is about the tangible side of the work: a monitor you pull off a desk at the client, a server cabinet you damage during an installation, a visitor who falls at your office, or damage to a hired workspace.
The AVB also covers the employers' liability. Under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code you have a duty of care for the safety of your staff, and the burden of proof lies with you. Under subsection 4 that duty of care also applies to hired-in developers, students on placement and contract staff. In an office environment nobody thinks about this, until someone brings a claim for RSI or after a fall down the stairs.
The risk that software really turns on falls outside the AVB: a bug that processes an order wrongly, a migration that loses data, a release that takes a client's web shop down. That is pure financial loss and that belongs on a professional indemnity insurance. If it is a break-in or a data breach, then cyber insurance is the right product.
What does the AVB cover for a software company?
The cover is about physical damage: at the client, at the office and through equipment your software runs on.
Employers' liability
Claims by employees and hired-in workers after an accident or health complaints.
- Duty of care under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code
- Also for contract staff and students on placement
- The burden of proof lies with the employer
- Traffic damage falls outside this
Goods supplied and care, custody and control
Sections with a limit of their own that you have to apply for separately.
- Hardware you supply or build in
- Embedded software in machines
- Clients' equipment in your care
- Usually with an excess
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| You damage hardware at the client during an installation | Yes | Yes |
| Injury to an employee or a student on placement at the office | Yes | Yes |
| A machine seizes up because of your control software and damages itself | Provided that | Yes |
| A client's loss of turnover through a bug in the release | No | No |
| A data breach at your client through your application | No | No |
| A claim about a breached open-source licence | No | No |
Which sections are included and which limits, excesses and exclusions apply is set out in the policy conditions and on the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) you receive before taking out the policy.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that determine which policy responds to a claim.
A bug is not property damage
The AVB knows only two kinds of loss: injury and damaged property. Data that is lost, an order processed twice or a platform that is down for a day does produce financial loss but no damaged property. That is pure financial loss and it is excluded on the AVB. Only professional indemnity insurance covers this, assessed against the standard of Article 7:401 of the Dutch Civil Code: the care of a diligent contractor.
Embedded software is the exception
If your code controls a machine, a vehicle, a medical device or a building installation, a fault can indeed lead to injury or property damage. The AVB then comes into play, and possibly also the product liability under Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code if you supply the software as part of a product. Report this type of work on your application: it is a different risk profile from administrative software and insurers assess it separately.
What else is not included
The exclusions include: repairing or rebuilding your own defective software: fixing bugs is performance of the contract, not a loss; fines and penalty payments, for instance from the Dutch data protection authority; intent and wilful recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code; and claims about copyright, trade mark rights and licence terms, including open-source licences. Contractual penalties under an SLA and damage involving a motor vehicle under Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM) also fall outside the cover.
Your SLA often decides more than your policy
Software contracts contain availability guarantees, penalty clauses and indemnities. An AVB covers only your statutory liability; anything extra you take on by contract falls outside it. So limit your liability in your own terms, for example to the contract sum or to the amount the insurer pays, and make sure those terms were demonstrably accepted before the agreement was concluded.
What does your premium depend on?
- Turnover: the usual basis for calculation
- Number of employees: including hired-in and contract staff
- Type of software: office applications or machine control
- Work on location: installation and implementation at clients
- Sum insured: per claim and per year
- Claims history: earlier claims and incidents
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
How we arrange it
- You request a quoteWe take stock of your situation, risk and wishes.
- We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
- You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
- We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
9.5New policy
9.8Claims handling
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Do I really need an AVB as a software company?
The risk is smaller than in construction, but it is not nil: you visit clients, you have staff and you work with equipment that is not yours. Many clients also require liability insurance before they sign a framework agreement. For office work the premium is usually low, precisely because the risk profile is modest.
So what does professional indemnity insurance cover?
A client's financial loss caused by a mistake in your services: a defective implementation, lost data, an interface set up wrongly, a missed deadline. That policy usually runs on a claims-made basis, which means the moment of the claim counts and not the moment of the mistake. So arrange run-in and run-off cover when you switch or stop.
And if the client is hacked through my application?
That involves a data breach and the cost of putting things right, not damaged property. The AVB does not pay. Depending on the policy conditions, professional indemnity insurance may cover the client's claim, while cyber insurance mainly deals with incident response, the investigation and your own recovery costs. Many development companies combine both covers.
Are hired-in developers covered?
For injury to themselves, usually yes, because Article 7:658 subsection 4 of the Dutch Civil Code extends your duty of care to everyone working on your instructions. For damage they cause at a client it depends on the policy and on whether they have been declared as co-insured. Also ask freelancers for their own liability cover.
Is a licence claim about open-source code covered?
No. Claims about intellectual property, including breaches of licence terms for open-source components, are not injury or property damage and fall outside the AVB. Many professional indemnity policies also exclude this or cover it only with a separate clause. So keep an up-to-date record of the components and licences in your codebase.
Read more
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Which policy covers your risk?
Request a quotation without obligation. We set the AVB, professional indemnity and cyber cover side by side.
Prefer to call? 072 - 509 24 56, weekdays 09:00–17:00.
Claim on the road? Emergency line 06 - 55 20 40 72.
About our service
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
You will find our licence, KvK and Kifid details and our complaints procedure at the foot of every page.
This page was written and checked by an adviser at Finass Verzekert. Last updated on .
The information on this page is general in nature and is not personal advice.