Allianz Australia fined millions over misleading consumers on travel insurance payouts

Insurance giant Allianz Australia has been handed a multimillion-dollar fine for criminally misleading the public about the maximum travel policy benefits available to customers.

Allianz and travel insurance expert AWP Australia pleaded guilty in June 2022 to charges linked to misrepresenting the nature of travel insurance for customers between 2016 and 2018.

Corporate regulator ASIC referred the case to prosecutors after it was canvassed at the 2018 banking and financial services royal commission.

Allianz appointed AWP as its agent and authorised it to develop travel insurance products and related services in 2010.

On Friday, Allianz was fined $13.5 million and AWP penalised $3.3 million over the breaches, which related to online descriptions that failed to disclose some limits on certain travel insurance products.

Allianz faced a potential maximum penalty of $437 million for each of six contraventions, while AWP had faced a maximum $16 million fine for one offence.

NSW Supreme Court judge Stephen Rothman noted the firms had co-operated fully with ASIC and police in their investigations, and they had pleaded guilty to the charges.

“Allianz’s conduct was disseminating information that was incorrect, that it ought reasonably to have known was false,” he said, adding that wrong information was likely to induce people to buy the products.

Allianz and AWP were in 2021 ordered to pay penalties of $1.5 million over the misleading sale of travel insurance policies through Expedia websites.

Allianz did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s judgment.