European ruling could be bad news for car insurance consumers

Wed, 23 Feb 2011

Consumers may lose out over an imminent EU ruling that could affect car insurance policies, moneysupermarket.com has warned.

The European Court of Justice is expected to announce its decision on March 1st over a case that could outlaw insurance companies' ability to use gender as one of the factors for calculating premiums .

This is likely to affect car insurance in particular with women usually charged substantially less than men, especially when they first start driving.

Commenting on the case, moneysupermarket.com's Steve Sweeney advised anyone whose car insurance is due for renewal in the next couple of months to purchase cover as soon as possible to avoid being impacted by the ruling.

"If the European Court of Justice rules that discriminating by gender will be deemed unlawful when calculating insurance premiums on March 1st, it will mark a fundamental and significant change in the UK insurance market," he said.

"The move would be detrimental to UK consumers, and in the case of car insurance, premiums for female drivers would almost certainly increase sharply as a result."
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