Equal treatment for men and women

Case C-236/09, CJEU, Luxembourg, 1 March 2011, Association belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL and Others v Conseil des ministres;

Ground: Equal treatment for men and women; Social aspect; Insurance; Access to and supply of goods and services; Gender – based discrimination; Insurance premiums; Unisex premiums; Invalidity of Directive.

The abstract of the Judgment

The object of this judgment concerns the validity of Article 5(2) of Council Directive 2004/113/EC of 13 December 2004 implementing the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services, as regards the annulment of the Law of 21 December 2007, which amended as regards the treatment of gender in insurance matters and of the Law of 10 May 2007 combating discrimination between men and women. The Constitutional Court decided to judge the invalidity of a Directive of the European Union. Legally the judgment refers to the Directive 2004/113 adopted on the basis of Article 13(1) EC. Recitals 1, 4, 5, 12, 15, 18 and 19, where is sanctioned the equality between men and women is a fundamental principle of the European Union.

This Directive should apply to both direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. In the judgment of this case, the Court analyzed that the principle of equal treatment means that similar or comparable situations cannot be treated differently and different situations cannot be treated in the same way, except in cases when such a thing is justified objectively. The Court underlines the risk that such a provision works against the achievement of the objective of equal treatment between men and women, which is the purpose of Directive 2004/113, and is incompatible with Articles 21 and 23 of the Charter. In the light of the above, the Court decided that this provision must therefore be considered to be invalid upon the expiry of an appropriate transitional period.