The social cost of “Anti-Discrimination”: higher insurance fees for everyone
Posted on | March 1, 2011 by J.C. von Krempach, J.D. |
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today issued a highly controversial judgment, according which insurance companies will be obliged to offer “unisex fees” for all insurance schemes, even if the insured risk differs significantly between men and women.
It is the first time that the EU is confronted with the consequences of having enshrined into the newest version of the EU Treaty (i.e., the “Lisbon Treaty”) an ill-drafted and overly radical principle of “equality between men and women”, which is now curtailing the private autonomy of companies and private persons.
EU Directive 2004/113/EC, which has been adopted in order to “implement the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services”, does contain an exception for insurance contracts, which “permits proportionate differences in individuals’ premiums and benefits where the use of sex is a determining factor in the assessment of risk based on relevant and accurate actuarial and statistical data.” But the ECJ decided that this exception was in contradiction with the “fundamental value of equality”, as enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty.
Quite obviously, this decision is against the intention of practically all Member States, who had believed they had the right to maintain some exceptions from the newly-developed “fundamental value”, and who had made the above-mentioned exception a pre-condition for approving the Directive. They are now learning that the inflation of ill-defined “fundamental values” does not come without a cost.
Insurance companies have already announced that as a result of this judgment, life insurance will become more expensive for men, and the insurance against car accidents more expensive for women.
