The MIB’s surrogate state liability (Pt 2)

• The MIB is liable for wide-ranging infringements of EU law within the UK’s compulsory motor insurance regime.
• The numerous practical implications could prove to be highly disruptive.

In the first part of this series, I considered how the unanimous ruling in MIB v Lewis  [2019] EWCA Civ 909 resolved, in decisive terms, the long-standing controversy over the Motor Insurance Bureau’s (MIB’s) legal status under European law (see Pt 1, NLJ 12 July 2019, p15). The court ruled that the MIB is an emanation of the state that is bound by the direct effect of Articles 3 and 10 of the Sixth Motor Insurance Directive 2009/103 (the Directive). The Directive’s provisions set the standard of the compensatory guarantee mandated under European law for motor accident victims, which the government has failed to fully implement within Part VI of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (the 1988 Act) and the EC Rights Against