In order for the injured parties in a traffic accident to be able to find out the insurance company of the vehicle that caused the accident when this occurs in a country other than the injured party's country of residence and in order for this person to present the claim in his or her own country of residence, the Fourth European Directive has established different mechanisms to provide the information that is required to present the aforementioned claim.

In summary, the system is applied when:

• Injured party: he or she is resident in a country within the European Economic Area.
• Vehicle causing the accident: registered and insured in a country within the European Economic Area that is different to the injured party's country.
• Country where it occurred: Any (in the EEA or attached to the Green Card system), but which differs to the injured party's country of residence.

The aim is to guarantee that the injured party may present a claim for the damages suffered in the accident in his or her own Country of Residence. In order to do this, all the insurance companies are obliged to indicate a representative in each Member State who can attend, respond and settle this type of claim. And in turn, each Member State of the European Economic Area must appoint a so-called "Information Organism" through which the injured party may locate the insurance company details for the foreign vehicle responsible and its representative in the State where the injured party resides.

In the Spain the Information Organism is the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros.