Commerce Commission completes Youi investigation

Wednesday, 23 March 2016

The Commerce Commission says it has concluded its investigation into South African insurer Youi and its sales techniques, but will not reveal its next step.

Youi launched in new Zealand in 2014, selling house, car and contents insurance through the internet and telephone.

The company has advertised extensively on television featuring people who it said had saved money by moving their insurance to Youi.

But complaints to the commission, including allegations that Youi had created policies for people who only asked for a quote, sparked an investigation.

Commission spokesman Christian Bonnevie said: 'The commission formally began investigating Youi in March 2015 as a result of receiving complaints about Youi's sales techniques'.

'These included claims Youi was requesting credit card details from individuals who were seeking quotes, and initiating allegedly unauthorised direct debits from those credit cards.'

Journalist Diana Clement revealed in March last year how she had sought a quote from Youi, which then created a policy and debited her Visa card without her permission.

Bonnevie said: 'We have now concluded the investigation process but are not yet in a position to discuss our findings or the outcome publicly. We will make a public statement at the conclusion of our process.'

The commission received 33 complaints about Youi between September 11, 2014 and July 14, 2015.

'We have assessed all of them and 20 were included in the formal investigation (the rest related to comparative advertising claims). An additional seven complaints have been added to the investigation since July last year,' Bonnevie said.

Youi has been approached for comment.