{"id":18199,"date":"2020-04-27T01:17:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T05:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/finale-of-showdown-between-insurers-could-have-broader-implications\/"},"modified":"2020-04-27T01:17:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T05:17:49","slug":"finale-of-showdown-between-insurers-could-have-broader-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/27\/finale-of-showdown-between-insurers-could-have-broader-implications\/","title":{"rendered":"Finale of showdown between insurers could have broader implications"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The resolution of a legal dispute in Zaire, South Africa could have major implications on how information collected through health-tracking programs can be used<\/a> to get benefits from insurers.<\/p>\n

Discovery, a Johannesburg-based financial services company, sought to block its Standard Bank-owned competitor, Liberty Life, from awarding customers wellness bonuses based on their health statuses under the behaviour-based Vitality Life program.<\/p>\n

According to a report by fin24, Discovery contended that Liberty Life \u201cinfringed on certain Discovery and Vitality trademarks in the marketing [of] its Wellness Bonus product.\u201d Specifically, it viewed Liberty Life\u2019s offer to calculate wellness bonuses based on customers\u2019 Vitality status as an unsanctioned attempt to ride on the coattails of Vitality\u2019s successful shared value model.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther insurance companies abroad, such as Manulife in Canada<\/a> and John Hancock in the US, have agreements with Discovery to use Vitality,\u201d fin24 noted, adding that the gyms, pharmacies, and retailers Discovery partnered with all had to sign an agreement with the company.<\/p>\n

But the Johannesburg High Court dismissed Discovery\u2019s motion with costs, saying that Liberty used the words \u201cDiscovery\u201d and \u201cVitality\u201d in its marketing materials only to confirm which wellness program a customer was signed up with.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowhere is there any suggestion by Liberty, through its use of the trademarks, that it is a Discovery Vitality rewards partner,\u201d said presiding judge Raylene Keightley, ruling further that Liberty\u2019s use of Vitality status in its wellness bonus program \u201cis not trade use.\u201d<\/p>\n

In making the ruling, the top South African court confirmed \u201cthat a Vitality member\u2019s Vitality status is their personal information and can be made publicly available,\u201d said Caroline Ncube, professor of intellectual property law at the UCT.<\/p>\n

While Ncube said the ruling establishes that Vitality consumers can use personal information on them \u201cfor whatever lawful purpose they want,\u201d she added that the decision is specific to the facts of the case.<\/p>\n

But Liberty\u2019s executive of retail solutions, David Jewell, had a more sanguine outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcome of this court case establishes a bunch of principles we can leverage on,\u201d he told fin24. \u201cThe various data sources that this can open up if customers wilfully provide it can allow us to risk rate clients more appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the original article at https:\/\/www.lifehealthpro.ca\/rss\/ <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The resolution of a legal dispute in Zaire, South Africa could have major implications on how information collected through health-tracking programs can be used to get benefits from insurers. Discovery, a Johannesburg-based financial services...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}