RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And in the European Union, women will no longer pay less for car insurance.
Teri Schultz reports that the EU's highest court has ruled that charging men and women different insurance premiums is gender discrimination.
TERI SCHULTZ: Young female drivers in Europe may not have felt discriminated against when insurance companies checked out their figures - figures showing they're less likely than male counterparts to get in a traffic accident. Nor have men been complaining that their pension payouts are higher than women's because statistically they don't live as long.
Insurance companies got exempted from an EU directive that mandated men and women must have equal access to goods and services. But after a challenge from a Belgian consumer group, the European Court of Justice decided to throw out the exemption.
Auto insurers warn the change coming next year could drive up women's premiums by 25 percent. Men's pension contributions will likely rise, too.
But the European Women's Lobby and EU's justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, praised the ruling.
Ms. VIVIANE REDING (European Justice Commissioner): This is an important step towards putting the fundamental right of gender equality into practice.
SCHULTZ: Conservative European parliamentarian Sajjad Karim calls it a setback for common sense - utter madness.
Insurance companies are mad all right, as in angry, insisting it's bad for them and customers to revamp the way premiums are calculated.
Malcolm Tarling of the Association of British Insurers says charging men and women differently isn't bias - it's business.
Mr. MALCOLM TARLING (Spokesman, Association of British Insurers): Insurers don't discriminate on the basis of someone's gender. They assess the risk, taking into account lots of different factors that are relevant to whether or not that risk is going to happen.
SCHULTZ: After years of lobbying against such a change, the insurance companies now have no recourse. The ruling cannot be appealed.
For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.
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