A landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice will remove the exemption that insurers had previously enjoyed to allow them to price their products according to gender from the end of 2012.

Insurers had an opt-out of a gender discrimination directive due to the wide use of gender in deciding premiums, but the UK along with the rest of the EU must now implement the policy into law by 21st December 2012.

In yesterday's judgement the Court points out that the European Union aims to eliminate inequalities and to promote equality between men and women.

Widespread use of differentiation between the sexes means the ruling will have a huge impact on the pricing of all insurance and protection products.  Brokers may consider this an opportunity to revisit some clients longer term insurance needs e.g. term assurance, to take advantage of current gender discriminatory pricing. However, the full impact of future pricing is not yet known so some caution is advisable.