Liability insurance for an IT company
An IT company supplies hardware, manages networks and sends people to clients. Each of those three activities falls under a different section of the policy.
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In brief
If you resell hardware, you are more than a service provider. If you sell equipment under your own brand or import it from outside the European Union, you count as the producer within the meaning of Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code and are liable for damage caused by a defective device, fire from a power supply or a battery for instance. The product liability section of the public and employers' liability insurance covers that, but never pays for the device itself, nor for the costs of retrieval and replacement.
Your second block of risk lies with people on site. Engineers and administrators work in server rooms, meter cupboards and clients' offices, with keys and access passes that are not theirs. Injury to your own staff falls under the duty of care of Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code, including for agency workers and self-employed people hired in (subsection 4). If your staff drive to clients every day, look at WEGAS and WEGAM, because traffic losses involving employees do not fall under the ordinary AVB.
The third block is what the client does not see: downtime and data. A change implemented wrongly, an administrator account that is misused or a back-up that does not work produces no damaged property, but it does produce a claim about money. That belongs on professional indemnity insurance and, for incidents through your own environment, on cyber insurance for IT companies.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
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What to look out for
Four subjects that determine the scope of the policy at an IT company.
The description of your business activity
IT companies grow sideways: from support to management, from management to supply, from supply to secondment. The policy covers only what is stated in the described business activity. If your range of services runs ahead of your policy, a gap opens up. Report extensions actively. The duty of disclosure follows from Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Access, keys and passes
Your people go to places where clients do not admit their own staff. If something goes missing or damage occurs after a visit, the client points to the last person who was there. Work with a record of keys and access devices issued and with a fixed protocol for signing off a visit.
What falls outside the cover
Excluded are the defective product itself and the costs of a product recall, loss of data and downtime at the client, equipment you have in your in your care during management or repair, licensing claims from software suppliers, administrative fines, and intent or wilful recklessness (Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code).
Your own business premises
A workshop holding clients' equipment is a point to note for the AVB: that equipment is not yours and falls under care, custody and control if it is damaged. There is business contents insurance for your own contents and stock and business interruption insurance for IT companiesfor downtime of your own business. Also check whether tenants' liability is included.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: split between services, management and hardware sales
- Payroll and workforce: the basis for employer's liability
- Share of resale and import: decisive for product liability
- Secondment and work on site: being on third parties' premises increases the property damage risk
- Area of cover: supply outside Europe calls for separate assessment
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
Where the claim belongs
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| Your engineer runs a sack truck full of switches into a client's glass partition wall | Yes | No |
| A self-employed administrator you hired in trips over an open cable duct in your warehouse and breaks an ankle | Yes | No |
| A battery you imported catches fire and damages the customer's office | Provided that | No |
| Retrieving and replacing the entire batch of power supplies delivered | No | No |
| Your advice to switch to a different package turns out not to fit and the client is left with unusable licences | No | Yes |
| A firewall configured wrongly lets an attacker in and the client's contact data is exposed | No | Provided that |
Product liability is a separate section that you have included expressly; incidents through your own environment belong on cyber cover.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A power supply we supplied has caused a fire at a customer's premises.
The damage to the customer's building and contents falls under the product liability section, provided it is on your policy. The device itself does not. If you are only a reseller of a European brand, liability lies primarily with the producer. If you import from outside the European Union yourself, you step into that position under Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Our administrator switched off the wrong circuit in a production environment.
If equipment is damaged or products spoil as a result, that is property damage and the AVB can come into play. If it is only about downtime and lost orders, it is financial loss and the AVB does not cover it. Record the agreed work and the maintenance window in writing in advance. In reality that determines the argument.
We second staff to clients. Who carries the risk there?
For working conditions the hirer counts as the party arranging the workplace, but as the employer you remain liable under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code. For damage your employee causes at the client, your company is held liable. Set out in the secondment agreement who gives instructions and which insurance covers which part.
A client requires a penalty per hour of downtime in the contract.
Contractual penalties are not liability in law and are therefore not insurable, not even on professional indemnity insurance. Limit this during negotiation to a realistic availability commitment with a maximum, and make sure the service level agreement matches what your policy actually covers before you sign.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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