Liability insurance for a web development agency
A web agency does not only build, it also maintains. That ongoing responsibility and working with freelancers together determine where your liability risk lies.
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- Several insurers
- Switching arranged
- Help with claims
In brief
The AVB contains three things that count for an agency: injury to visitors and staff, damage to third parties' property, and damage to the premises you rent. The last of those requires the tenant's liability clause, which is not included as standard everywhere. An explanation of the sections is set out on hub page on public and employers' liability.
The risk specific to an agency lies in deliveries and maintenance. A release that breaks the ordering module, a migration in which customer data disappears, a maintenance contract in which you promise availability the hosting provider does not deliver. Those are money claims: pure financial loss, outside the AVB, belonging on professional indemnity insurance. For break-ins, ransomware and data breaches, look at cyber insurance for web agencies.
Agencies rarely work alone. If you engage freelancers or an offshore team, your client can hold you liable under Article 6:171 of the Dutch Civil Code for mistakes they make in carrying out the work. Check whether auxiliary persons engaged are included on your policy schedule and whether those freelancers' cover matches what you promise your client.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
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Business liability insurance (AVB)
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We cancel your old policy and align the start date, so you are never a day without cover.
Help with claims
We report the claim and monitor how it is handled. In urgent cases you can reach us on the emergency line.
What to look out for
Four points an agency with staff and subcontractors must watch.
Liability for non-subordinates
For your own employees Article 6:170 of the Dutch Civil Code applies, for independently engaged workers Article 6:171 DCC. The client comes to you in either case. Set out in your subcontracts a insurance obligation and ask for a policy schedule every year; otherwise you carry someone else's risk without being paid for it.
Maintenance contracts create extra obligations
Availability percentages, response times and penalty clauses are contractual liability. What the law does not impose on you but you have accepted yourself is excluded on liability insurances. Check for each contract whether you take on an obligation you cannot pass back to a supplier.
Staff, trainees and workstations
Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code requires you to provide a safe working environment; subsection 4 includes trainees and hired-in workers in that. With full-time screen work that means adjustable workstations, a break regime and an up-to-date risk inventory and evaluation. If your team works partly from home, report that to the insurer.
Equipment, premises and fines
Clients' servers or test devices standing at your premises fall under the care, custody and control exclusion. You insure your own workstations and network equipment with business contents insurance, not with liability. Administrative fines from a regulator are not insurable anywhere, not even on a cyber policy.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the yardstick for the risk towards clients
- Payroll and number of employees: the basis for employers' liability
- Use of freelancers and subcontractors: determines whether auxiliary persons have to be included
- Size of the maintenance portfolio: ongoing responsibility increases the chance of claims
- Floor area rented and type of premises: decisive for tenants' liability
- 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 falls down the stairs in your office during a demo | Yes | No |
| An employee reports long-term RSI complaints after years of screen work | Yes | No |
| A leaking coffee machine damages the floor of your rented office beyond repair | Provided that | No |
| A release by your team breaks a webshop's ordering module in the middle of the festive season | No | Yes |
| A hired-in freelancer accidentally deletes a client's customer database | No | Provided that |
| The regulator imposes a fine after a data breach in a portal you built | No | No |
Whether a hired-in worker's mistake falls under your policy depends on whether auxiliary persons are included.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A freelancer of ours makes a mistake at a client. Who is liable?
Your client has a contract with you, so he holds you liable. Article 6:171 of the Dutch Civil Code makes you liable for the mistakes of non-subordinates in carrying out your work. You can then try to recover from the freelancer, but that only succeeds if he has assets or is insured himself.
Our hosting provider is down and the client claims against us. Is that covered?
Loss of turnover from downtime is pure financial loss and falls outside the AVB. Whether professional indemnity insurance pays depends on your professional error and on what you promised by contract. Penalties under a service level agreement remain uninsured, because they are not liability in law.
Does damage to our rented office fall under the AVB?
Only with the tenant's liability clause. Fire and water damage to premises you rent is liability towards the landlord and that is a separate section. Without that clause you stand alone. We check this as a matter of course when obtaining quotes for office-based organisations.
Do we need legal expenses cover as well as the AVB?
Liability insurance only responds where someone else holds you liable. If you want to enforce something yourself — an unpaid invoice, a dispute with a supplier, an employment dispute — you need business legal expenses insurance. Agencies with many project contracts come up against that more often than against injury claims.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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