(A) misrepresenting pertinent facts or insurance policy provisions relating to coverage at issue; 

(B) failing to acknowledge and act reasonably promptly upon communications with respect to claims arising under insurance policies; 

(C) failing to adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt investigation of claims arising under insurance policies; 

(D) refusing to pay claims without conducting a reasonable investigation based upon all available information; 

(E) failing to affirm or deny coverage of claims within a reasonable time after proof of loss statements have been completed; 

(F) not attempting in good faith to effectuate prompt, fair and equitable settlements of claims in which liability has become reasonably clear; 

(G) attempting to settle a claim for less than the amount to which a reasonable man would have believed he was entitled by reference to written or printed advertising material accompanying or made a part of the application; 

(H) attempting to settle claims on the basis of an application which was altered without notice to, or knowledge or consent of the insured; 

(I) making claim payments to insureds or beneficiaries not accompanied by a statement setting forth the coverage under which the payments are made; 

(J) making known to insureds or claimants a policy of appealing from arbitration awards in favor of insureds or claimants for the purpose of compelling them to accept settlements or compromises less than the amount awarded in arbitration; 

(K) delaying the investigation or payment of claims by requiring an insured, claimant, or the physician of either to submit a preliminary claim report and then requiring the subsequent submission of formal proof of loss forms, both of which submissions contain substantially the same information; 

(L) failing to promptly settle claims where liability has become reasonably clear under one portion of the insurance policy coverage in order to influence settlements under other portions of the insurance policy coverage; 

(M) failing to promptly provide a reasonable explanation on the basis in the insurance policy in relation to the facts or applicable law for denial of a claim or for the offer of a compromise settlement. 

(1) Misrepresentations and false advertising of insurance policies.  Making, issuing, circulating, or causing to be made, issued or circulated, any estimate, illustration, circular, statement, sales presentation, omission, or comparison which: 

(A) misrepresents or fails to adequately disclose the benefits, advantages, conditions, exclusions, limitations or terms of any insurance policy; or 

(B) misrepresents the dividends or share of the surplus to be received on any insurance policy; or 

(C) makes any false or misleading statements as to the dividends or share of surplus previously paid on any insurance policy; or 

(D) is misleading or is a misrepresentation as to the financial condition of any person, or as to the legal reserve system upon which any life insurer operates; or 

(E) uses any name or title of any insurance policy or class of insurance policies misrepresenting the true nature thereof; or 

(F) is a misrepresentation for the purpose of inducing or tending to induce the lapse, forfeiture, exchange, conversion, or surrender of any insurance policy; or 

(G) is a misrepresentation for the purpose of effecting a pledge or assignment of or effecting a loan against any insurance policy; or 

(H) misrepresents any insurance policy as being shares of stock. 

(2) False information and advertising generally.  Making, publishing, disseminating, circulating or placing before the public or causing, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, in a newspaper, magazine or other publication, in the form of a notice, circular, pamphlet, letter or poster or over any radio station or television station, or in any other way, an advertisement, announcement or statement containing any assertion, representation or statement with respect to the business of insurance or with respect to any person in the conduct of his business, which is untrue, deceptive or misleading. 

(3) Defamation.  Making, publishing, disseminating, or circulating, directly or indirectly, or aiding, abetting, or encouraging the making, publishing, disseminating or circulating of any oral or written statement or any pamphlet, circular, article or literature which is false, or maliciously critical of or derogatory to the financial condition of any person and which is calculated to injure such person. 

(4) Boycott, coercion and intimidation.  Entering into any agreement to commit, or by any concerted action committing any act of boycott, coercion or intimidation resulting in or tending to result in unreasonable restraint of trade, or monopoly in, the business of insurance. 

(A) Committing any act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation in the marketing or sale of any insurance contracts. 

(5) False financial statements and entries.   

(A) Knowingly filing with any supervisory or other public official, or knowingly making, publishing, disseminating, circulating or delivering to any person, or placing before the public, or knowingly causing directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, delivered to any person, or placed before the public, any false material statement of fact as to the financial condition of a person. 

(B) Knowingly making any false entry of a material fact in a book, report or statement of any person or knowingly omitting to make a true entry of any material fact pertaining to the business of such person in any book, report or statement of such person. 

(C) Knowingly concealing, withholding or destroying, mutilating, altering or by any means falsifying any documentary material in the possession, custody or control of any person after that person 

(i) has received a complaint to which that documentary material is directly relevant or 

(ii) knows that the documentary material is relevant to an investigation or an examination of that person being made by the commissioner. 

(6) Stock operations and advisory board contracts.  Permitting agents, officers or employees to issue or deliver, agency or company stock or other capital stock, or benefit certificates or share in any common-law corporation, or securities or any special or advisory board contracts or other contracts of any kind promising returns and profits as an inducement to insure. 

Unfair discrimination; arbitrary underwriting action.   

(A) Making or permitting any unfair discrimination between insureds of the same class and equal risk in the rates charged for any contract of insurance, or in the dividends or other benefits payable thereon, or in any other of the terms and conditions of such contracts. 

(B) Making or permitting unfair discrimination against an applicant or an insured, on the basis of the sex, sexual orientation or marital status of the applicant or insured, with regard to: 

(i) Underwriting standards and practices or eligibility requirements; or 

(ii) Rates; however, nothing in this subdivision shall prevent any person who contracts to insure another from setting rates for such insurance in accordance with reasonable classifications based on relevant actuarial data or actual cost experience in accordance with section 4656 of this title. 

(C) (i) Inquiring or investigating, directly or indirectly as to an applicant's, an insured's or a beneficiary's sexual orientation in an application for insurance coverage, or in an investigation conducted by an insurer, reinsurer, or insurance support organization in connection with an application for such coverage, or using information about gender, marital status, medical history, occupation, residential living arrangements, beneficiaries, zip codes or other territorial designations to determine sexual orientation; 

(ii) Using sexual orientation or beneficiary designation in the underwriting process or in the determination of insurability; 

(iii) Making adverse underwriting decisions because medical records or a report from an insurance support organization reveal that an applicant or insured has demonstrated AIDS-related concerns by seeking counseling from health care professionals; 

(iv) Making adverse underwriting decisions on the basis of the existence of nonspecific blood code information received from the medical information bureau or a national data bank, but this prohibition shall not bar investigation in response to such a nonspecific blood code; 

(v) The provisions of this subdivision (C) shall not be construed to prohibit an insurer from requesting an applicant or insured to take an HIV-related test on the basis of the health history or current condition of health of the applicant or insured in accordance with the provisions of subdivision (20) of this section. 

(D) Making or permitting any unfair discrimination against any individual by conditioning insurance rates, the provision or renewal of insurance coverage, or other conditions of insurance based on medical information, including the results of genetic testing, where there is not a relationship between the medical information and the cost of the insurance risk that the insurer would assume by insuring the proposed insured. In demonstrating the relationship, the insurer can rely on actual or reasonably anticipated experience. As used in this subdivision, "genetic testing" shall be defined as the term is defined in section 9331(7) of Title 18. 

(E) Making or permitting unfair discrimination between married couples and parties to a civil union as defined under 15 V.S.A. § 1201, with regard to the offering of insurance benefits to a couple, a spouse, a party to a civil union, or their family. The commissioner shall adopt rules necessary to carry out the purposes of this subdivision. The rules shall ensure that insurance contracts and policies offered to married couples, spouses, and families are also made available to parties to a civil union and their families. The commissioner may adopt by order standards and a process to bring the forms currently on file and approved by the department into compliance with Vermont law. The standards and process may differ from the provisions contained in chapter 101, subchapter 6 and sections 4062, 4201, 4515a, 4587, 4685, 4687, 4688, 4985, 5104 and 8005 of this title where, in the commissioner's opinion, the provisions regarding filing and approval of forms are not desirable or necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section. 

(8) Rebates.   

(A) Except as otherwise expressly provided by law, knowingly permitting or offering to make or making any contract of insurance or agreement as to such contract other than as plainly expressed in the insurance contract issued thereon, or paying or allowing, or giving or offering to pay, allow, or give, directly or indirectly, as inducement to such insurance, any rebate or premiums payable on the contract, or any special favor or advantage in the dividends or other benefits thereon, or any valuable consideration or inducement whatever not specified in the contract; or giving, or selling, or purchasing or offering to give, sell, or purchase as inducement to such insurance contract or annuity or in connection therewith, any stocks, bonds, or other securities of any insurance company or other corporation, association or partnership, or any dividends or profits accrued thereon, or anything of value whatsoever of value not specified in the contract. 

(B) Making available through any rating plan or form, property, casualty or surety insurance to any firm, corporation or association of individuals, any preferred rate or premium based upon any fictitious grouping of such firm, corporation or individuals. The grouping of risks by way of membership, nonmembership, license, franchise, employment, contract, agreement, or any other method or means, when the grouping of risks have no preferred characteristic over similar risks written on an individual basis, for the purpose of insuring such grouped risks at a preferred rate or premium or on a preferred form is a "fictitious grouping." This subdivision shall not apply to life or health and disability insurance or annuity contracts. 

(C) Nothing in subdivision (7) or (8)(A) of this section shall be construed as including within the definition of discrimination or rebates any of the following practices: 

(i) in the case of any contract of life insurance or life annuity, paying bonuses to policyholders or otherwise abating their premiums in whole or in part out of surplus accumulated from nonparticipating insurance, provided that such bonuses or abatement of premiums shall be fair and equitable to policyholders and for the best interest of the company and its policyholders; 

(ii) in the case of life insurance policies issued on the industrial debit plan, making allowance to policyholders who have continuously for a specified period made premium payments directly to an office of the insurer in an amount which fairly represents the saving in collection expenses; 

(iii) readjustment of the rate of premium for a group insurance policy based on the loss or expense thereunder, at the end of the first or any subsequent policy year of insurance thereunder, which may be made retroactive only for such policy year. 

(21) Automobile glass services.  In the case of claims for damage to automobile glass under a policy of insurance covering, in whole or in part, motor vehicles: 

(A) Failing to inform an insured, at the time a claim is made, of the right of the insured to choose freely any company or location for providing automobile glass services. 

(B) Intimidating, coercing, threatening, or misinforming an insured for the purpose of inducing the insured to use a particular company or location to provide automobile glass services. 

(B) failing to acknowledge and act reasonably promptly upon communications with respect to claims arising under insurance policies; 

(C) failing to adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt investigation of claims arising under insurance policies; 

(D) refusing to pay claims without conducting a reasonable investigation based upon all available information; 

(E) failing to affirm or deny coverage of claims within a reasonable time after proof of loss statements have been completed; 

(1) Misrepresentations and false advertising of insurance policies.  Making, issuing, circulating, or causing to be made, issued or circulated, any estimate, illustration, circular, statement, sales presentation, omission, or comparison which: 

(A) misrepresents or fails to adequately disclose the benefits, advantages, conditions, exclusions, limitations or terms of any insurance policy; or 

(B) misrepresents the dividends or share of the surplus to be received on any insurance policy; or 

(C) makes any false or misleading statements as to the dividends or share of surplus previously paid on any insurance policy; or 

(D) is misleading or is a misrepresentation as to the financial condition of any person, or as to the legal reserve system upon which any life insurer operates; or 

(E) uses any name or title of any insurance policy or class of insurance policies misrepresenting the true nature thereof; or 

(F) is a misrepresentation for the purpose of inducing or tending to induce the lapse, forfeiture, exchange, conversion, or surrender of any insurance policy; or 

(G) is a misrepresentation for the purpose of effecting a pledge or assignment of or effecting a loan against any insurance policy; or 

(H) misrepresents any insurance policy as being shares of stock. 

(2) False information and advertising generally.  Making, publishing, disseminating, circulating or placing before the public or causing, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, in a newspaper, magazine or other publication, in the form of a notice, circular, pamphlet, letter or poster or over any radio station or television station, or in any other way, an advertisement, announcement or statement containing any assertion, representation or statement with respect to the business of insurance or with respect to any person in the conduct of his business, which is untrue, deceptive or misleading.