ECJ Rules that Insurance price cannot be based on Gender
The European Court of Justice has now ruled that insurers cannot price products based on gender from December 21, 2012.
The move will mean that providers will radically have to change the way they price annuities, life assurance and health insurance. The ruling follows a test case brought by Belgian consumer group Test-Achats which questioned whether men and women should be offered different pricing on insurance products, as this could be interpreted as a form of gender discrimination.
The ruling states that the opt out clause of the EU Gender Directive, under which insurers have previously been able to offer men and women different pricing, will cease to be effective from December 21, 2012.
It follows that
This is likely to prompt a male annuity closing down sale in the run up to Christmas 2012.
For women, in theory the opposite applies, it may be better to wait until the December 22 deadline has passed to buy an annuity, ignoring any other factors.
Unisex life assurance rates should cut the cost of cover for men and increase it for women.
How insurers will react – once they recover from the shock – is unclear.
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