12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 323 (2005 – 2006)
Christopher Krois, Visiting Scholar, Columbia Law School.
With the objective of further extending the scope of European Union legislation on gender discrimination to areas other than employment and professional life, a new directive entered into force on 13 December 2004: Directive 2004/113/EC implements the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services.
Considering the great economic importance of this area, the adoption of the directive was the subject of a rather heated debate among European scholars: On the one hand, the directive was heavily criticized for imposing severe restrictions on the right to freedom of contract. The prohibition of sex-based actuarial data in calculating insurance risks was even called a threat to the entire insurance industry resulting in less accurate pricing. On the other hand, the directive was regarded as a necessary, but nonetheless, unsatisfactory response to sex discrimination in everyday life, and the numerous exclusions finally introduced in the directive by lobbying were targets of especially scathing criticism.
The following legislative development will therefore, after a short survey of the context of European non-discrimination law and the legislative history of the directive, critically analyze the provisions of Directive 2004/113/EC, raising the question whether its adoption constitutes a step forward or rather marks an impasse in implementing the principle of sexual equality in society.
