European Commission issues anti-discrimination guidance
Mon 23 Jan 2012
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Following the ECJ ruling that Article 5(2) of the Gender Directive is invalid, the European Commission has issued guidelines to help the insurance industry implement unisex pricing.
On 22 December 2011, the European Commission published its guidelines to Europe’s insurance industry to ensure non-discrimination between men and women in insurance premiums. This follows the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on the Test-Achats case on 1 March 2011, in which the ECJ gave insurers until 21 December 2012 to treat individual male and female customers equally in terms of insurance premiums and benefits.
The guidelines clarify that, as a result of the ECJ Test-Achats ruling, the unisex rule has to be applied to new contracts concluded as from 21 December 2012. The guidelines include specific examples of what is considered a “new contract” to ensure a comprehensive application of the unisex rule at EU level from the same date.
In addition, the guidelines provide examples of gender-related insurance practices which are compatible with the principle of unisex premiums and benefits and therefore will not change because of the Test-Achats ruling. These practices are very diverse, ranging from the calculation of technical provisions to reinsurance pricing, medical underwriting or targeted marketing. The guidelines also confirm that the Test-Achats ruling does not affect the use of other rating factors, such as age and disability.
The document concludes that member states have to adapt their legislation to the ruling by 21 December 2012 and that the European Commission will monitor national legislation compliance with the ruling on the basis of the criteria set out in the guidelines. The European Commission will also monitor the market's developments in order to detect any potential unjustified increases of premiums attributed to the ECJ ruling. The European Commission will report on the Test-Achats ruling implementation in national law and in insurance in 2014 in the context of a report on the Gender Directive implementation.
