Australian courtroom orders Allianz pay $1.1 mln penalty for travel insurance sales

Sept 7 (Reuters) – An Australian court docket fined nearby units of Allianz SE (ALVG.DE) for marketing vacation insurance policies to ineligible buyers and not thoroughly disclosing how it calculated premiums on Expedia (EXPE.O) web-sites, the country’s corporate watchdog mentioned.

Two units of German insurer Allianz were on Monday fined a total of A$1.5 million ($1.12 million) in a civil case introduced by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in September very last year.

The models, Allianz Australia and AWP Australia, fully commited A$10 million in Oct previous 12 months to compensate all over 31,500 prospects who were being offered potentially incorrect vacation insurance policy through Allianz’s individual internet site and Expedia, ASIC mentioned.

Allianz Australia issued the vacation insurance plan although AWP managed its sale.

“The insurance plan field desires to be transparent and precise when providing and endorsing their products,” ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court docket explained in a assertion.

ASIC claimed the court docket took into thought the early admission by the Allianz providers in selecting the penalty.

The German organization claimed it self-documented the make a difference in 2018 and did not contest the penalty sought by the ASIC.

“Allianz and AWP welcome the finalisation of this make a difference,” Allianz explained in an emailed statement.

The two models also face different felony expenses for allegedly producing inaccurate statements concerning 2016 and 2018 when marketing both equally domestic and intercontinental journey coverage.

($1 = 1.3444 Australian dollars)

Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru Editing by Sandra Maler

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