At a Colorado industry meeting, a producer announces that a competing insurer is near collapse, knowing the statement is false and intending to draw away the competitor's agents. This is:

Why C is correct

C.R.S. § 10-3-1104(1)(c) prohibits making or disseminating false or maliciously critical and derogatory statements about the financial condition of any person that are calculated to injure. A knowingly false insolvency claim aimed at damaging a competitor fits that definition, and it is also actionable under the separate defamation statute, C.R.S. § 10-1-116, when one insurer defames another.

Why the other options are wrong

• A) Coercion involves boycotts, intimidation, or pressure on a party; the producer merely spread a false statement.
• B) Twisting requires misrepresenting a policy's terms to induce a lapse or exchange, which did not occur here.
• D) Unfair discrimination concerns unequal treatment of applicants and policy classifications, not statements about a competitor.

Memory hook

False solvency rumors aimed at a rival equal defamation.