EU Ruling on Gender Discrimination.
Today, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given its judgement in the Test-Achats case on the use of gender of an insured person as a risk factor in insurance contracts.
The court decided to follow the opinion of its Advocate General, Juliane Kokott, and say that the derogation of the prohibition to take into account gender for calculating premiums is not compatible with the (higher ranking) fundamental right prohibiting discrimination on grounds of sex.
The court explains that the derogations Memeber States made use of to allow a differentiation between sexes should have been temporary and must therefore be considered to be invalid upon the expiry of an appropriate transitional period. Consequently, the court rules that, in the insurance services sector, the derogation from the general rule of unisex premiums and benefits is invalid with effect from the 21st of December 2012. This also applies to life assurance ( the court does not answer the seperate question on life assurance since it says that the differentiation is invalid ( in all cases ) as of the 21st December 2012 so there is no need to answer that question).
The rule of unisex premiums and benefits will therefore apply with effect from 21st December 2012.
Insurance companies and associations have already warned that this may make insurance more expensive for certain groups/ premiums in general may rise.
You can find the ECJ press release and the link to the judgement in various languages at the following location:
http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-03/cp110012en.pdf