(a) On January 1, 1990, and on every January 1, thereafter, the commissioner shall publish and distribute a comparison of insurance rates report for those lines of insurance which, in the comissioner’s judgment, are of most interest to individual purchasers of personal lines of coverage. The report shall be available to consumers. The distribution shall be designed to make consumers throughout the state aware of the content of the report. This report shall be prepared by the commissioner in a manner designed to provide information useful to consumers so that they may make informed comparisons of coverages and rates.

(b) The submission of any false rate information by any such insurer pursuant to a request of the commissioner for the purpose of compiling comparative data for the report to be published as required in subdivision (a), shall be punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). Any person subject to regulation by the commissioner pursuant to this code that fails to comply with a data call required by the department pursuant to this section shall be liable to the state for a civil penalty in an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each 30-day period that the person is not in compliance, unless the failure to comply is willful, in which case the civil penalty shall be in an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each 30-day period that the person is not in compliance, but not to exceed an aggregate amount of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). In determining the level of the penalty, the commissioner shall consider the good faith of the insurer and any similar prior violations by the insurer under this code.

(Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 1076, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2003.)