Challenges In Insurance Consumer Protection: From Good Faith To Algorithmic Fairness
- IJLLR Journal
- Jun 4
- 1 min read
Shalu, LL.M., ICFAI University, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh
ABSTRACT
Consumer law within the insurance sector inhabits a critical thus far frequently underexamined position in the broader landscape of financial parameter. The insurer possesses actuarial expertise, products knowledge and intuitional resources that the usual policyholder cannot realistically match. This structural inequality has historically enabled practices that disadvantage consumers, ranging from the inclusion of obscure exclusion clauses to the utter denial of legitimate claims on technical causes. This study interrogates the legal mechanism developed across multiple jurisdictions to frustrate these tendencies, tracing the doctrinal shift from a regime that demand disclosure to affirmative standards of fairness, transparency and good faith. Statutory reforms, conduct of business regulation and the growing impacts of ombudsman-based dispute resolution have collectively reshaped the reshaped the policyholder’s legal standing, however the effectiveness of these tools remains uneven transversely markets. The research further confronts a new generation of consumer protection tasks that conventional regulatory frameworks were not designed to address. the adoption of algorithmic pricing models introduces impenetrability into underwriting decisions that consumers cannot interrogate. Climate -driven coverage withdrawals are rendering insurance inaccessible to households in high-risk region. The proliferation of digitally distributed products has enhanced sales while weakening the quality of advice and disclosure. The study concludes that meaningful consumer protection in insurance requires more than incremental rule making. majorly the insurer’s duty is to provide the fairness or treats fairness not as a edge to clear but as a going obligation to demonstrate, enforced through regulatory frameworks capable of adapting as swiftly as the industry itself progresses.
Keywords: consumer law, insurance regulation, policyholder rights, information asymmetry, unfair terms, claims handling, InsurTech, regulatory oversight.
