No-claims clause (Article 11 of Regulation 833/2014)
The provision that bars satisfying, for a Russian or listed person, any claim connected with a contract whose performance was affected by the sanctions, insurance indemnities and guarantee calls included.
Article 11 of Regulation 833/2014 forbids satisfying any claim in connection with a contract or transaction whose performance has been affected, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, by the measures in the regulation. The text lists what it covers: claims for indemnity, claims under a guarantee, extension or payment of a bond, financial guarantee or counter-guarantee, in whatever form. Barred from the benefit are listed persons and the entities they own outside the Union, any other Russian person or entity, and anyone acting on their behalf. The burden of proof is reversed: whoever seeks enforcement must show that the claim is not prohibited. Regulation 269/2014 carries a twin provision for frozen persons. Regulation 2024/1745 of June 24, 2024, the fourteenth package, added Article 11a: an EU operator can sue in a Member State court for the damage caused by proceedings a Russian party brought outside the Union over an affected contract. For insurance, the text cuts both ways. A Russian policyholder whose loss stems from a blocked contract cannot be indemnified, whatever law governs the policy. A European credit or surety insurer need not honor a Russian bank's call on a performance bond. What remains open is what "satisfy" means. In Stankoimport v Reibel (C-802/24), referred by the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, Advocate General Biondi advised on February 26, 2026 that the article bars paying, not arbitrating. The dispute stays arbitrable, but the court reviewing the award must apply the ban as a rule of EU public policy.
Textbook case: a Belgian manufacturer sells 8 million euros of machine tools to a Russian buyer, backed by an on-demand performance bond of 10 percent, or 800,000 euros, issued by a Russian bank and counter-guaranteed by a European surety insurer. A sanctions package puts the machines in a banned export annex, and delivery stops. The buyer calls the bond; the Russian bank pays locally, then turns to the surety insurer for 800,000 euros. The call is connected with a contract affected by the measures and comes from a Russian entity: the insurer does not pay, and it is up to the bank, if it sues in Europe, to prove otherwise. If the bank wins an 800,000 euro judgment in Moscow, enforced against the insurer's Russian assets, the insurer can claim that sum back before a European court under Article 11a.
no claims clause, Article 11 Regulation 833/2014, EU sanctions no-claims provision, prohibition on satisfying claims, Article 11a damages claim, no-claims rule Russia sanctions
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