The Bremen Court of Appeal recently held that the proximate cause of a vessel's grounding after its main engine had cut out was the bad weather, rather than the engine problem. Further, the insurer's right to request information from the assured was limited to information relating to the proximate cause and did not extend to remote causes. This decision is highly questionable in respect of both causation and insurers' right to information.

As the insurability of administrative fines is not specifically provided for by the Insurance Contract Act, it may not be prohibited per se. Nonetheless, the industry is reluctant to offer insurance cover for administrative fines. Given the increasingly high penalties that can be imposed by administrative authorities following the entry into force of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, a legislative response would be appreciated at a supra-national level.