ASIC has announced that as a result of ASIC concerns about a misleading pet insurance advertising headline on Petplan Australasia’s website, Allianz Australia Insurance Limited (Allianz) has compensated 740 Petplan insurance customers over $231,000 and its agent, Petplan Australasia Pty Ltd (Petplan), has corrected its Petplan advertising.
Petplan insurance is issued by Allianz and distributed by Petplan. The Petplan policy provides cover for the cost of veterinary expenses arising from the treatment of injury, accident or illness in a pet dog or cat.
Petplan’s website promoted the Petplan insurance product with a headline statement that the policy provided a 100% rebate on claims for veterinary bills. A small-print disclaimer then qualified this by stating that the 100% rebate excluded a fixed excess and non-claimable items. It did not disclose that, in addition to a fixed excess of $150, a variable excess amount (20% for a pet aged 8 years or 35% if 10 years or over) is deducted from the final claim payment made to customers.
In response to ASIC’s concerns that the representation was misleading, Allianz has agreed to:
- remove all references to the 100% rebate on veterinary bills from the Petplan website;
- compensate relevant policyholders who had a variable excess amount deducted from their claim amount; and
- update the product disclosure statement and the online sales process to clearly disclose the existence and application of the variable excess for pets aged 8 years and over.
