STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3625
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 11, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sens. BRESLIN, SEWARD -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Insurance
AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to promoting competitive
property and casualty insurance markets for business to business
insurance transactions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Compet-
2 itive Commercial Insurance Markets Act".
3 § 2. Section 2302 of the insurance law, paragraphs 5 and 6 of
4 subsection (a) as amended and paragraph 7 of subsection (a) as added by
5 chapter 614 of the laws of 1997, is amended to read as follows:
6 § 2302. Applicability. (a) This article shall apply to all kinds of
7 insurance written on risks or operations in this state by an insurer
8 authorized to do business in this state except:
9 (1) reinsurance (other than joint reinsurance to the extent stated in
10 section two thousand three hundred seventeen of this article);
11 (2) accident and health insurance;
12 (3) annuities, life insurance, including provisions for non-cancella-
13 ble disability benefits in conjunction therewith;
14 (4) marine insurance (other than personal inland marine insurance
15 covering property of individuals or households and insurance upon auto-
16 mobiles[, airplanes, seaplanes, dirigibles or other aircraft]);
17 (5) marine protection and indemnity insurance;
18 (6) insurance issued by an assessment cooperative fire insurance
19 company; [and]
20 (7) service contract reimbursement insurance; and
21 (8) commercial lines specialty insurance, which includes:
22 (i) aircraft liability and hull insurance;
23 (ii) surety and fidelity insurance;
24 (iii) commercial inland marine insurance;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09800-01-9
S. 3625 2
1 (iv) boiler and machinery insurance;
2 (v) environmental impairment/pollution liability insurance;
3 (vi) kidnap and ransom insurance;
4 (vii) political risk or expropriation insurance;
5 (viii) excess and umbrella liability insurance;
6 (ix) directors' and officers' liability insurance;
7 (x) fiduciary liability insurance;
8 (xi) employment practices liability insurance;
9 (xii) errors and omission and professional liability insurance
10 (other than medical malpractice);
11 (xiii) media liability insurance;
12 (xiv) product liability, product recall or completed operations insur-
13 ance;
14 (xv) cybersecurity insurance, including first and third party commer-
15 cial lines coverage for losses arising out of or relating to data priva-
16 cy breaches, network security, computer viruses and similar exposures,
17 and including identity theft group insurance policies under section
18 three thousand four hundred fifty-one of this chapter;
19 (xvi) highly protected commercial property insurance;
20 (xvii) commercial flood insurance (other than national flood insurance
21 program);
22 (xviii) commercial lines travel insurance, including group property
23 travel insurance policies under section three thousand four hundred
24 fifty-two of this chapter;
25 (xix) all commercial lines kinds of insurance and classes of risk,
26 other than workers' compensation and automobile insurance, when
27 purchased by a commercial policyholder with aggregate annual commercial
28 property and casualty insurance premiums of twenty-five thousand dollars
29 or more excluding premiums paid for workers' compensation and automobile
30 insurance; and
31 (xx) any other commercial lines kinds of insurance or classes of risk
32 that the superintendent deems, pursuant to regulation, exempt from rate
33 and policy form filing requirements in order to promote enhanced compe-
34 tition or to more effectively use the resources of the department that
35 otherwise might be used to review commercial lines specialty policy
36 insurance form or rate filings.
37 (b) The superintendent may from time to time make investigations with
38 respect to classes of risks of the kinds of insurance exempted in [para-
39 graph one hereof] subsection (a) of this section and may call upon all
40 authorized insurers and rate service organizations making rates for such
41 risks to furnish information relative thereto.
42 (c) With respect to the classes of risks of the kinds of insurance
43 exempted in paragraph eight of subsection (a) of this section, the
44 superintendent may temporarily reinstate, for a period of no longer than
45 one year, the requirement for rate or form filings for a specific class
46 of risk if, after a hearing, the superintendent makes a finding of fact
47 that a reasonable degree of competition does not exist for that specific
48 class of risk. Such a finding of fact by the superintendent must specify
49 the relevant tests used to determine whether a lack of a reasonable
50 degree of competition exists and the results thereof. In the absence of
51 such specific findings of fact by the superintendent, a competitive
52 market is presumed to exist.
53 § 3. Section 3201 of the insurance law is amended by adding a new
54 subsection (e) to read as follows:
55 (e) Except for paragraphs one and three of subsection (c) of this
56 section, this section shall not apply to commercial lines travel insur-
S. 3625 3
1 ance. However, with respect to commercial lines travel insurance, the
2 superintendent may temporarily reinstate, for a period of no longer than
3 one year, the requirement for policy form filings if, after a hearing,
4 the superintendent makes a finding of fact that a reasonable degree of
5 competition does not exist for that specific type of insurance. Such a
6 finding of fact by the superintendent must specify the relevant tests
7 used to determine whether a lack of a reasonable degree of competition
8 exists and the results thereof. In the absence of such specific findings
9 of fact by the superintendent, a competitive market is presumed to
10 exist.
11 § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
12 ing the date on which it shall have become a law and shall apply to all
13 property and casualty insurance policies issued, renewed or modified on
14 or after such date.
