August 18, 2015. Rosgosstrakh, an insurance company, was sentenced to a 7,000-RUR fine in Yekaterinburg; the company was detected to make its customers buy extra (unnecessary) services, Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) states.

It was revealed in the course of an inquiry that a Yekaterinburg resident had come to the insurance company’s office to get the obligatory third-party liability car insurance.

The company only agreed to sell the customer the insurance policy if he also bought life insurance for a one-year period (March 22, 2015 to March 21, 2016). As a result, the customer had to sign a contract for the latter and pay an extra 2,000 RUR.

Justice of the Peace declared the latter contract void, so Rosgosstrakh was made to pay the 2,000 RUR back as well as to cover moral damage (2,000 RUR) and postal expenses (247.71 RUR) and to pay a 2,000-ruble fine for failing to respond to the customer’s actual needs (6,247 RUR all in all).

In fact, Kamensk Uralsky division of Rospotrebnadzor had laid its claim against Rosgosstrakh earlier, demanding that the insurance company stop infringing extra services upon its customers. Sinara District Court of Kamensk Uralsky sustained the plaintiff’s claim at the time.