1. In this Act—

“average consumer” has the meaning given to it by Directive No. 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005¹ concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC, Directives 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No. 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

“consumer” has the meaning given to it by paragraph (a) of the definition of that expression (as it is defined in relation to a financial service) in section 2(1) of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman Act 2017 but, for the purposes of this Act, that paragraph (a) shall apply as if references in it to “financial service” and “financial service provider” were construed, respectively, as references to “consumer insurance contract” and “insurer” within the meaning of this Act;

“continuing restrictive condition” means any condition, however expressed, that purports to require a consumer to do, or not to do, a particular act or acts, or requires him or her to act, or not to act, in a particular manner (and any condition the effect of which is that a given set of circumstances is required to exist or to be maintained or not to exist shall be taken as falling within this definition);

“contract of insurance” means, except where otherwise provided in this Act, a contract of life insurance or non-life insurance made between an insurer and a consumer;

“durable medium” means any instrument that enables a recipient to store information addressed personally to the recipient in a way that renders it accessible for future reference for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

“fraudulent misrepresentation” means a misrepresentation that is false or misleading in any material respect and which the consumer either—

(a) knows to be false or misleading, or

(b) consciously disregards whether it is false or misleading, and “fraudulent” or “fraud” shall be construed accordingly;

“insurance intermediary” has the meaning given to it by Regulation 2 of the European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 229 of 2018);

“insurer” means an insurance undertaking, that is to say, an insurance undertaking within the meaning of, as appropriate, Regulation 3 of the European Union (Insurance and Reinsurance) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 485 of 2015), Regulation 2 of the European Communities (Non-Life Insurance) Framework Regulations 1994 (S.I. No. 359 of 1994) or Regulation 2 of the European Communities (Life Assurance) Framework Regulations 1994 (S.I. No. 360 of 1994);

“life insurance” has the meaning given to it by Regulation 3 of the European Union (Insurance and Reinsurance) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 485 of 2015);

“Minister” means the Minister for Finance;

“non-life insurance” has the meaning given to it by Regulation 3 of the European Union (Insurance and Reinsurance) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 485 of 2015).