Liberty and Discovery square off over perks

LegalBrief today

The Discovery group crosses a legal line by offering freebies such as coffee and movie tickets – though Discovery Vitality – to people who sign up for long-term insurance policies with Discovery Life, competitor Liberty Group has claimed in court papers. Discovery vociferously disagrees – and says insurers should compete on price and benefits. The slugging match between the two is playing out in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) where Discovery is challenging Liberty's use of their shared clients' Vitality status in its own incentive scheme. The same scrap has also seen Liberty allege that Discovery bullied Ster Kinekor and Virgin Active to keep competition to its huge Vitality programme at bay. Discovery on Friday told Business Insider it could not respond in detail to Liberty because the allegations are part of a court case where pleadings are still open. But Discovery accused Liberty of diverting from its own unlawful competition by raising such issues, and said it objects to the allegation of unlawful inducement.

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