Tuesday 1 March 2011

What the relevant EU commissar has to say about that idiotic insurance ruling

The relevant commissar being Viviane Reding, who has moved on from Media etc to 'Justice' and shows about as much sense as before:

"Today is an important moment for gender equality in the European Union.... the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that different insurance premiums for women and men constitute sex discrimination and are not compatible with the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights...The insurance industry will certainly be affected by the ruling. For products such as life assurance and annuities, all 27 EU countries currently allow insurers to use sex as a risk-rating factor. However, I also would like to underline that parts of the insurance industry have already started to move in the direction of gender equality. Insurers have already shown flexibility as Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Slovenia apply unisex premiums for car insurance. (So all the heavy hitters then...QG) In the light of today's judgement, I call on insurers across the EU to follow this good example regarding all insurance contracts".

While I would far rather do away with charters of rights - 'Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense — nonsense upon stilts' - if we must have them, perhaps a charter for corporations might include the right to go about the evaluation and pricing of risk based on proven actuarial facts.   

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