Drivers flee parking lot takeover outside Wilmington as police break up illicit gathering
Dozens of cars staging a parking lot takeover at the Miller Road Shopping Center outside Wilmington scatter as Delaware State Police officers arrive to break up the gathering shortly after midnight, Sunday, April 6, 2025.
Liberty Mutual must pay a $300,000 penalty for falsely advertising premium discounts for auto and homeowners’ insurance despite not offering those discounts in Delaware.
The state Department of Insurance announced Monday that the insurance company must pay $300,000 across “three member companies” for the false advertisements and marketing, a practice that state officials say Liberty Mutual has been investigated for in the past.
The companies include Liberty Insurance Corporation, Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Company, and LM Insurance Corporation.
An additional $200,000 must be paid if Liberty Mutual doesn’t immediately correct the problem.
Delaware Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro said there is already a lot to think about when shopping for insurance coverage. The commissioner’s job is to uncover “misleading advertising” and other misrepresentations so they don’t choose the wrong coverage.
“We have seen this problem before, and we are committed to ensuring it is corrected,” Navarro said in a news release.
During a monthslong investigation reviewing data from Jan. 1, 2021, through July 31, 2023, Delaware officials found 39,806 instances of false information and advertising by Liberty Mutual companies. In 31,696 instances, the company listed a “claims free discount” on homeowner insurance declaration pages, but no such discount was offered in Delaware.
And in 8,110 cases, Liberty Mutual companies indicated auto insurance customers could access “safety discounts if the consumers’ vehicle uses adaptive control, lane departure, warning, or collision preparation systems,” yet didn’t offer those discounts on Delaware policies, the investigation found.
A Liberty Mutual Insurance spokesperson issued an emailed statement on April 14, apologizing for “any unintentional errors” in Delaware’s policy forms.
“We have fully cooperated with the Delaware Department of Insurance on making all necessary corrections, including one in this review that was rectified in 2022,” the spokesperson continued. “These administrative errors had no intent to be misleading; and importantly, no customers’ premiums were adversely impacted.”
Liberty’s companies write more than $59.7 million in premium in Delaware, according to the state insurance department.
In past investigations of Liberty Mutual’s companies, the department found nearly 35,000 instances of false information and advertising by LM General Insurance Company and Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company from January 2018 through March 31, 2021.
The companies each paid $150,000 in penalties but were found non-compliant in correcting the problems, which resulted in an additional probe.
Penalties are paid to the state’s general fund.
Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com.
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