Prohibition against gender-based insurance

The new EU discrimination laws make it more expensive for women to take out new car insurance.

Insurance companies will no longer have different premium rates for men and women, according to a new EU law which comes into force on 21 december.

Until now, insurance companies have used the statistical differences between men and women in order to price the different premiums, for example, in the case of car insurance. Men are more accident prone than women and therefore have had to pay higher premiums.

Now they disappear differences. As of December 21, all insurance policies to be gender neutral, and insurance companies are prohibited to make a difference in men and women. The background is a judgment on the sex discrimination from the ECJ.

The consequence is that the insurance companies raise premiums for women to the same level as men. Policyholder's age will, however, affect the insurance premium rates in the future.