The Durban High Court has ruled in favour of insurance disrupter Everything.Insure in a legal dispute with insurance aggregator Hippo.
The two companies locked horns in court over a consumer education social media post which Hippo wanted it taken down.
This after Everything.Insure launched a social media series educating consumers on the insurance industry, including posting about the differences between Everything.Insure, other insure-techs and traditional insurance broking models.
The video in question was published in March and outlined the differences between Everything.Insure and Hippo.
The main differences highlighted in the post were that Everything.Insure is an independent company providing multiple and comparative quotes from top insurers in the market.
Hippo on the other hand is a lead generator owned by Telesure Investment Holdings which also owns many other insurers quoted on its platform including 1st For Women, Auto & General, Budget Insurance, Virseker, and DialDirect.
After receiving a notice of legal complaint from Hippo, Everything.Insure temporarily archived the post and invited Hippo to provide clarity on the elements of the post it had difficulty with.
After Hippo declined to provide the details, Everything.Insure unarchived the video on its platforms, which has now received more than 130 000 views.
On March 31, 12 days after the post was released online, Hippo launched a legal complaint at the high court alleging that the post was defamatory and misleading.
The application came before the Durban High Court on April 6 and was struck off the court roll by judge Chetty, who awarded an adverse costs order against Hippo for failing to make out a case of urgency.
Mishaya Chettiar, executive head of Everything.Insure, said the post simply aimed to provide a balanced and factual view of the differences between Hippo and Everything.Insure, so that consumers can make informed decisions.
“This post was based on market research, real-world case studies and an analysis of Hippo’s processes,” said Chettiar.
“We had no intention of starting a war with Hippo and made great efforts to portray Hippo in the best light and only focus on the factual differences, leaving out subjectivity or opinion from our post.”
She said the post explains that as Hippo is part of the Telesure Investment Holdings Group, it only includes a small number of insurers from outside its own stable, another point that Hippo has raised as the basis for its concern.
“We felt we were being bullied in a typical David versus Goliath manner, and believed so strongly in our mission to be an independent consumer champion, that we were willing to pay the price to stand our ground.
“Everything.Insure is determined to continue defending our legal rights on behalf of all South Africans, who deserve greater transparency, accurate quotes, and ethical information from the insurance industry.”
Ashley Smart, chief executive of Hippo, was quoted in the media as saying the company “loves a good comparison”.
“In fact, that’s what our business is all about,” said Smart.
However, he noted that the comparison should be factually accurate, so that the public is not misled.
“This is the point we wanted to make, at first amicably, and then through the courts. Whilst the urgency was dismissed, the merits of the case will be heard at a later date.”
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