In India. From Business Insurance:
The platform Amazon Pay will offer automobile and motorcycle insurance policies in partnership with Acko General Insurance Ltd. The policies can be purchased in minutes with “no paperwork” and include extra services and discounts for Prime members, Amazon said in a statement.
Claims services can also be conducted online, on a computer or smartphone app, and promise to be “hassle-free,” the company said.
Sounds as convenient as two-day shipping on all your household necessities? Not so fast. The fine print: You have to live in India, as the insurance is only being offered there.
This begs the question, why would Amazon only want to offer this insurance in India? I get it. It is probably a pretty large insurance market with fewer competitors, but why not roll this out in the good ole USA?
Perhaps Lord Bezos is merely biding his time and waiting to perfect the product, but my guess is that it has a lot more to do with the presence of "loser pays" rules in India. If you file a lawsuit in India (let's say after an automobile accident for example), if you lose, you have to pay the other party's legal expenses. As a result, you have far fewer lawsuits.
What does that have to do with auto insurance? Well, it makes losses far lower and far more predictable, which has been a huge problem in the United States. Needless to say, we do not have "loser pays" in Texas.
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