Vice-President Viviane Reding, the EU's Justice Commissioner, met leading EU insurers in September 2011 to discuss how the industry should adapt to the court's ruling.

Following consultation with national governments, insurers and consumers, the EC said that its guidelines respond to the need for practical guidance on the implications of the ruling that aim to benefit both consumers and insurance companies.

"When the Court of Justice issued its decision in the Test-Achats case on 1 March this year, I promised that the Commission would help insurers and consumers adapt to the ruling," said Commissioner Reding. "By adopting these guidelines a full year ahead of the deadline to comply with the court's ruling, we have lived up to our commitment. It is now up to the insurance industry to ensure that there is a smooth transition to fully equal treatment of men and women in insurance. The Commission will remain vigilant in how the industry implements the court's ruling. I expect that insurers that move to a unisex tariff first will have a competitive advantage on the European market."

EU Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier, said: "There have been some concerns among insurers as to the impact and consequences of this important judgment, in particular at this time when insurers as all other financial market participants face important challenges. I believe that these guidelines will be helpful for the industry and assist them in adapting their contracts and premiums to be able to ensure timely and full compliance with the judgment. This will be beneficial for both the industry and policyholders."

The guidelines clarify that the ruling applies only to new contracts, in particular to contracts concluded from 21 December, 2012. They also give specific examples of what is considered a new contract to ensure a comprehensive application of the unisex rule at EU level from the same date.

The implications of the judgment were discussed on 20 June with member states and stakeholders at the Forum on Gender and Insurance set up by the Commission in 2009. Ms Reding also met leaders of European insurance companies on 21 September.

The EC was keen to stress that the Test-Achats ruling does not mean that women will always pay the same car insurance premiums as men.

It pointed out that currently a careful young male driver pays more for auto insurance just because he is a man. "Under the ruling, insurers can no longer use gender as a determining risk factor to justify differences in individuals' premiums. But the premiums paid by careful drivers—male and female—will continue to decrease based on their individual driving behaviour. The ruling does not affect the use of other legitimate risk-rating factors and price will continue to reflect risk," stated the Commission.

"Gender is a determining risk-rating factor for at least three main product categories: motor insurance, life insurance/annuities and private health insurance. In all three categories, it is likely that a transition towards unisex pricing will have consequences on premiums and/or benefits at the individual level for men and women. Depending on the product concerned, premiums might increase or decrease for certain categories of consumers," continued the EC.

Insurers and experts throughout Europe expect that the ruling will inevitably lead to price increases for most and for no good reason. But the EC says that it sees no reason why the market cannot adapt to the new circumstances without necessarily raising costs for consumers, though it did perhaps somewhat undermine its case by describing the industry as 'innovative'.

"The insurance industry is competitive and innovative. It should be in a position to make these adjustments and offer attractive unisex products to consumers without unjustified impact on the overall price level. Price reductions resulting from unisex pricing should be passed on to consumers with the same level of fairness as price increases," stated the EC.

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