EUROPA - EU law and publications - EUR-Lex - EUR-Lex - 62009CA0236 - EN - Case C-236/09: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 1 March 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour constitutionnelle (Belgium)) — Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL, Yann van Vugt, Charles Basselier v Conseil des ministres (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Fundamental rights — Combating discrimination — Equal treatment for men and women — Access to and supply of goods and services — Insurance premiums and benefits — Actuarial factors — Sex as a factor in the assessment of insurance risks — Private ...[+++]life assurance contracts — Directive 2004/113/EC — Article 5(2) — Derogation not subject to any temporal limitation — Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Articles 21 and 23 — Invalidity) // Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 1 March 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour constitutionnelle (Belgium)) — Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL, Yann van Vugt, Charles Basselier v Conseil des ministres // (Case C-236/09) - ( // (Reference for a preliminary ruling - Fundamental rights - Combating discrimination - Equal treatment for men and women - Access to and supply of goods and services - Insurance premiums and benefits - Actuarial factors - Sex as a factor in the assessment of insurance risks - Private life assurance contracts - Directive 2004/113/EC - Article 5(2) - Derogation not subject to any temporal limitation - Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union - Articles 21 and 23 - Invalidity)

Although the Internal Market for insurance products has been in place for a longer time, cross-border activity for life assurance products has also remained limited, representing well below 10% of total life assurance premiums written in most Member States.

— life and health underwriting: the unisex rule means that premiums and benefits cannot be different between two individuals for the same insurance policy simply because their gender is not the same.

3. By way of derogation from the preceding paragraphs, the identification requirements with regard to insurance policies written by insurance undertakings within the meaning of Council Directive 92/96/EEC of 10 November 1992 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to direct life assurance (third life assurance Directive)(14), where they perform activities which fall within the scope of that Directive shall not be required where the periodic premium amount or amounts to be paid in any given year does or do not exceed EUR 1000 or where a single premium is pai ...[+++]d amounting to EUR 2500 or less.

Under Article L.310-8 of the French Insurance Code, in the case of life assurance contracts, insurance enterprises are asked to provide, in a marketing information sheet, information on the features of the contract, including the contractual definition of the cover provided, the duration of the contract, the method of paying the premiums, the time-limit and procedure for surrendering the contract, the formalities to be completed in the event of a claim, the premiums relating to the principal a ...[+++]nd supplementary items of cover, the date of marketing and the minimum guaranteed profit, including the guaranteed interest rate.

In view of the particular importance of an adequate protection for life policyholders a number of additional measures will be introduced as compared to non-life insurance: - the home state can ask for systematic notification of the bases used for the calculation of premiums and technical provisions; - an early warning procedure is foreseen where a host state has reason to suspect that the activities of a company operating on its territory endanger its ...[+++] financial solidity; - the cooling-off period, first introduced by the 2nd Life Directive for policyholders who entered into a contract through free provisions of services, is now extended to benefit all individual policyholders; - in order to guarantee transparency for consumers in a market with an increasing variety of products, companies will be obliged to set out to each policyholder in clear terms the essential elements of a contract before its conclusion and later when changes occur.