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Insurance companies often need to go through restructuring for various reasons. Such restructuring can happen in company law through the mechanism of M&A, or under EU legislation via portfolio transfer (see e.g. Article 14 of Directive 2002/83/EC and Article 12 of Directive 92/49/EEC in the field of non-life insurance). This chapter discusses reorganising, restructuring and winding-up of insurance companies, as well as insurance portfolio transfers by means of company law mechanisms (M&A) and under the Cross-Border Mergers Directive, as well as under the Solvency II Directive. It then goes on to discuss the position under Greek law, and uses as a case study the winding-up of Aspis Pronia in 2009 and the transfer of the insurance undertakings’ portfolios. The analysis will allow us to identify that the level of insurance portfolio transfers harmonisation in the EU is not as high as expected, and that a common framework and harmonisation is needed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that business and contractual relationships have been disrupted. The pandemic has also meant that there are legal liabilities owed to disruption, cancellations, or to the imposed halt of everyday life. We discuss force majeure and frustration in contract in cases where circumstances have changed due to unnatural events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the pandemic on business interruption, and liability insurance. The scope of insurance coverage for catastrophic risks and the civil liability insurance as well as business interruption coverage are discussed and conclusions on the role of insurance in the COVID-19 pandemic are drawn, as the body of case law and the pandemic per se continues to sweep humanity in an unprecedented way. La pandemia de COVID-19 ha significado la interrupción de las relaciones comerciales y contractuales. La pandemia también ha supuesto que surjan responsabilidades legales debidas a las interrupciones, cancelaciones o al cese impuesto a la vida cotidiana. En este artículo se analizan la fuerza mayor y la interrupción de contratos en casos donde las circunstancias han cambiado debido a eventos no naturales como la pandemia de COVID-19 y el impacto que esta tiene en la interrupción de los negocios y seguro de responsabilidad. Se discute el alcance de la cobertura del seguro para riesgos catastróficos y el seguro de responsabilidad civil, así como la cobertura de interrupción del negocio y se extraen conclusiones sobre el papel de los seguros en la pandemia COVID-19, ya que los casos y la pandemia per se continúan barriendo a la humanidad de una manera sin precedentes.