For Whom Does An Intermediary Act? Law Commission Policy Statement 2009

In March 2009, the Law Commission published a policy statement regarding the status of intermediaries and dealing with the question for whom does an intermediary act when it passes pre-contract information from consumer/insured to insurer. This is part of the Law Commission's joint review of a consumer's obligations to give information to insurers before entering an insurance contract and this policy statement follows the recent summary of published responses which identified the need for further clarity in this area.

Review of the Test

The single bright line test, which was proposed in the July 2007 Consultation Paper, stated that the intermediary was taken to act for the insurer unless it is clearly independent and only those intermediaries which conducted a fair analysis of the insurance market were taken to act for the consumer. This would have brought some clarity to the law but would also have resulted in a significant shift towards treating the intermediary