The following are hereby defined as unfair methods of competition and unfair and deceptive acts or practices in the business of insurance:
1. Misrepresentations and false advertising of policy contracts. Making, issuing, circulating, or causing to be made, issued or circulated, any estimate, illustration, circular or statement misrepresenting the terms of any policy issued or to be issued or the benefits or advantages promised thereby or the dividends or share of the surplus to be received thereon, or making any false or misleading statement as to the dividends or share of surplus previously paid on similar policies, or making any misleading representation or any misrepresentation as to the financial condition of any insurer, or as to the legal reserve system upon which any life insurer operates, or using any name or title of any policy or class of policies misrepresenting the true nature thereof, or making any misrepresentation to any policyholder insured in any company for the purpose of inducing or tending to induce such policyholder to lapse, forfeit, or surrender his or her insurance.
2. False information and advertising generally. Making, publishing, disseminating, circulating, or placing before the public, or causing, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication, or in the form of a notice, circular, pamphlet, letter or poster, or over any radio or television station, or in any other way an advertisement, announcement or statement containing any assertion, representation or statement with respect to the business of insurance or with respect to any person in the conduct of his or her insurance business which is untrue, deceptive or misleading. No insurance company shall issue, or cause to be issued, any policy of insurance of any type or description upon life, or property, real or personal, whenever such policy of insurance is to be furnished or delivered to the purchaser or bailee of any property, real or personal, as an inducement to purchase or bail said property, real or personal, and no other person shall advertise, offer or give free insurance, insurance without cost or for less than the approved or customary rate, in connection with the sale or bailment of real or personal property, except as provided in Section 4101 of this title. No person that is not an insurer shall assume or use any name which deceptively infers or suggests that it is an insurer.
3. Defamation. Making, publishing, disseminating, or circulating, directly or indirectly, or aiding, abetting or encouraging the making, publishing, disseminating or circulating of any oral or written statement or any pamphlet, circular, article or literature which is false, or maliciously critical of or derogatory to the financial condition of an insurer, and which is calculated to injure any person engaged in the business of insurance.
4. Boycott, coercion and intimidation. Entering into any agreement to commit, or by any concerted action committing, any act of boycott, coercion or intimidation resulting in or tending to result in unreasonable restraint of, or monopoly in, the business of insurance.
5. False financial statements. Filing with any supervisory or other public official, or making, publishing, disseminating, circulating or delivering to any person, or placing before the public or causing directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, delivered to any person or placed before the public, any false statement of financial condition of an insurer with intent to deceive.
Making any false entry in any book, report or statement of any insurer with intent to deceive any agent or examiner lawfully appointed to examine into its condition or into any of its affairs, or any public official to whom such insurer is required by law to report, or who has authority by law to examine into its condition or into any of its affairs, or, with like intent, willfully omitting to make a true entry of any material fact pertaining to the business of such insurer in any book, report or statement of such insurer.
6. Stock operations and advisory board contracts. Issuing or delivering or permitting agents, officers, or employees to issue or deliver agency company stock or other capital stock, or benefit certificates or shares in any common-law corporation, or securities or any special or advisory board contracts or other contracts of any kind promising returns and profits as an inducement to insurance.
7. Unfair discrimination.
8. Rebates.
9. Coercion prohibited. Requiring as a condition precedent to the purchase of, or the lending of money upon the security of, real or personal property, that any insurance covering such property, or liability arising from the ownership, maintenance or use thereof, be procured by or on behalf of the vendee or by the borrower in connection with such purchase or loan through any particular person or agent or in any particular insurer, or requiring the payment of a reasonable fee as a condition precedent to the replacement of insurance coverage on mortgaged property at the anniversary date of the policy; provided, however, that this provision shall not prevent the exercise by any such vendor or lender of the right to approve or disapprove any insurer selected to underwrite the insurance; but any disapproval of any insurer shall be on reasonable grounds.
10. Inducements. No insurer, agent, broker, solicitor, or other person shall, as an inducement to insurance or in connection with any insurance transaction, provide in any policy for or offer, sell, buy, or offer or promise to buy, sell, give, promise, or allow to the insured or prospective insured or to any other person in his or her behalf in any manner whatsoever:
11. Premature disposal of premium notes prohibited. No insurer or agent thereof shall hypothecate, sell, or dispose of a promissory note received in payment of any part of a premium on a policy of insurance applied for prior to the delivery of the policy.
12. Fraudulent statement in application; penalty. Any insurance agent, examining physician, or other person who knowingly or willfully makes a false or fraudulent statement or representation in or relative to an application for insurance, or who makes any such statement to obtain a fee, commission, money, or benefit shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
13. Deceptive use of financial institution's name in notification or solicitation. Verbally or by any other means notifying or soliciting any person in a manner that:
Nothing in this paragraph shall be interpreted to prohibit the reference to or use of the name of a financial institution made pursuant to a contractual agreement between the insurer and the financial institution.
Added by Laws 1957, c. 261, § 1204, operative July 1, 1957. Amended by Laws 1965, c. 261, § 2, emerg. eff. June 22, 1965; Laws 1980, c. 196, § 1, eff. Oct. 1, 1980; Laws 1987, c. 210, § 34, eff. July 1, 1987; Laws 2005, c. 129, § 10, eff. Nov. 1, 2005; Laws 2006, c. 180, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2006; Laws 2007, c. 1, § 20, emerg. eff. Feb. 22, 2007; Laws 2012, c. 148, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2012.
NOTE: Laws 2006, c. 264, § 43 repealed by Laws 2007, c. 1, § 21, emerg. eff. Feb. 22, 2007.