A Colorado automobile insurance company has been fined $71,100 for steering its claimants to preferred repair shops.
According to a release from the Colorado Department of Insurance (CDOI), IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company (better known as Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance Company), an investigation revealed that between September 2006 and January 2010, more than 700 Colorado consumers participated in an Ameriprise incentive program, for which they received a discount of $100 off the collision deductible amount for using a repair shop that was contracted with the insurance company as a direct repair facility.
"While the repair shops contracted with Ameriprise may have done good work, the anti-steering law ensures that consumers, not insurance carriers, are in the driver's seat to decide where they want repairs done," said Colorado Insurance Commissioner Marcy Morrison.
CDOI said that Ameriprise will pay a monetary penalty of $71,100 ($100 for each of the 711 consumers who was steered to a preferred repair shop using the program), which will go into Colorado's general fund. By law, CDOI said that the company must also pay a 10 percent surcharge ($7,100) to an outreach and education fund.
