(215 ILCS 5/149) (from Ch. 73, par. 761)
Sec. 149.
Misrepresentation and defamation prohibited.
(1) No company doing business in this State, and no officer, director,
agent, clerk or employee thereof, broker, or any other person, shall make,
issue or circulate or cause or knowingly permit to be made, issued or
circulated any estimate, illustration, circular, or verbal or written
statement of any sort misrepresenting the terms of any policy issued or to
be issued by it or any other company or the benefits or advantages promised
thereby or any misleading estimate of the dividends or share of the surplus
to be received thereon, or shall by the use of any name or title of any
policy or class of policies misrepresent the nature thereof.
(2) No such company or officer, director, agent, clerk or employee
thereof, or broker shall make any misleading representation or comparison
of companies or policies, to any person insured in any company for the
purpose of inducing or tending to induce a policyholder in any company to
lapse, forfeit, change or surrender his insurance, whether on a temporary
or permanent plan.
(3) No such company, officer, director, agent, clerk or employee
thereof, broker or other person shall make, issue or circulate or cause or
knowingly permit to be made, issued or circulated any pamphlet, circular,
article, literature or verbal or written statement of any kind which
contains any false or malicious statement calculated to injure any company
doing business in this State in its reputation or business.
(4) No such company, or officer, director, agent, clerk or employee
thereof, no agent, broker, solicitor, or company service representative,
and no other person, firm, corporation, or association of any kind or
character, shall make, issue, circulate, use, or utter, or cause or
knowingly permit to be made, issued, circulated, used, or uttered, any
policy or certificate of insurance, or endorsement or rider thereto, or
matter incorporated therein by reference, or application blanks, or any
stationery, pamphlet, circular, article, literature, advertisement or
advertising of any kind or character, visual, or aural, including radio
advertising and television advertising, or any other verbal or written
statement or utterance (a) which tends to create the impression or from
which it may be implied or inferred, directly or indirectly, that the
company, its financial condition or status, or the payment of its claims,
or the merits, desirability, or advisability of its policy forms or kinds
or plans of insurance are approved, endorsed, or guaranteed by the State of
Illinois or United States Government or the Director or the Department or
are secured by Government bonds or are secured by a deposit with the
Director, or (b) which uses or refers to any deposit with the Director or
any certificate of deposit issued by the Director or any facsimile,
reprint, photograph, photostat, or other reproduction of any such
certificate of deposit.
(5) Any company, officer, director, agent, clerk or employee thereof,
broker, or other person who violates any of the provisions of this Section,
or knowingly participates in or abets such violation, is guilty
of a
business offense and shall be required to pay a penalty of not less than
$200 nor more than $10,000, to be recovered in
the name of the People of the State of Illinois either by the Attorney
General or by the State's Attorney of
the county in which the violation occurs. The penalty so recovered
shall
be paid into the county treasury if recovered by the State's Attorney or
into the State treasury if recovered by the Attorney General.
(6) No company shall be held guilty of having violated any of the
provisions of this Section by reason of the act of any agent, solicitor or
employee, not an officer, director or department head thereof, unless an
officer, director or department head of such company shall have knowingly
permitted such act or shall have had prior knowledge thereof.
(7) Any person, association, organization, partnership, business trust
or corporation not authorized to transact an insurance business in this
State which disseminates in or causes to be disseminated in this State any
advertising, invitations to inquire, questionnaires or requests for
information designed to result in a solicitation for the purchase of
insurance by residents of this State is also subject to the sanctions of
this Section. The phrase "designed to result in a solicitation for the
purchase of insurance" includes but is not limited to:
(a) the use of any form or document which provides |