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Who cares
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Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to insurance
- Referred to insurance
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S5795
Title of bill
An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to insurance companies and car rental steering
Summary of specific provisions
This bill would require the insurance company, when providing a claimant with a rental vehicle, to provide the claimant with the name and contact information of at least three rental vehicle companies that are located within 30 miles of the location where the insured will use the rental vehicles; if there are not three rental vehicle companies within 30 miles, the insurance company shall provide the name and contact information of as many rental vehicle companies as possible. In addition, the bill would prohibit an insurer from receiving any compensation from a rental vehicle company when the insurer refers a claimant.
Justification
Even though the Insurance Law currently prohibits insurers from requiring a consumer to use specific rental vehicle companies, some insurers have found a way around this provision by establishing relationships with large, national rental vehicle companies and then recommending those companies to the consumer. While the consumer can still choose any rental care company, the consumer feels compelled to use the company recommended by the insurer; this arrangement hurts smaller, local businesses that provide vehicle rentals. This bill would address this by requiring insurers to provide consumers with a list of at least three rental vehicle companies.
In addition, while there may be several legitimate reasons why an insurer would recommend a particular rental vehicle company (good customer service, for example), there have been allegations that some insurance companies receive rebates from rental vehicle companies for large numbers of referrals. Referrals should be based upon whether the rental company will be best able to meet the consumer's needs. This bill would address this by prohibiting insurance companies from receiving compensation or rebates from a rental vehicle company in exchange for a referral.
Prior legislative history
New Bill
Fiscal implications
None noted
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.