ASIC has refused relief from the requirement to obtain express consent before delivering financial services disclosures online.
ASIC refused relief to a general insurance provider from the requirement to obtain express agreement to providing a statement about its driver protection cover (DPC) on its website from renewing compulsory third party insurance customers under s1015C(1)(a)(iii) of the Corporations Act, as inserted by Class Order [CO 10/1219] Facilitating online delivery of PDSs, FSGs and SOAs.
In its latest report ASIC explains that relief was refused because:
- it had already considered and addressed the practical difficulties for online disclosures under [CO 10/1219].
- it considered that a provider must obtain a client’s express consent before delivering financial services disclosures online (see RG 221.28 of Regulatory Guide 221 Facilitating online financial services disclosures (RG 221)) and not obtaining prior express consent would be a significant departure from ASIC policy.
- there was a risk that customers who do not have access to the internet would not be informed of proposed changes to the statement.
- it considered the cost of over $1.5 million of obtaining express consent under s1015C(1)(a)(iii) to be an ordinary cost of compliance: see RG 51.58 of Regulatory Guide 51 Applications for relief (RG 51).
- it considered that Parliament intended for the DPC to be provided in conjunction and at no extra cost to compulsory third party insurance (reg 7.1.14(2)(d)), but did not modify the requirements for giving disclosure about this product under s1015C of Pt 7.9 of Ch 7, except for the relief provided under s1019C(4) of the Corporations Act.
