Guy Carpenter issued its semiannual analysis of key European legislative developments affecting the casualty insurance industry. Produced in collaboration with law firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek and its network of legal experts across Continental Europe, the report, Recent Legislative and Judicial Developments in Continental Europe Affecting the Casualty Insurance Industry, analyzes the most impactful and significant legislative changes and judicial developments across 11 jurisdictions, which include:

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David Lewin, Managing Director
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Background

The CJEU has continually shown its commitment to fight discrimination and just took another step in that direction. In a judgment delivered on March 1, 2011, in the case of Tests-Achats (Belgian consumers association) versus Belgium, the court found that Article 5 of Council Directive 2004/113 allows member states to maintain an exemption in the insurance field from the rule of unisex premiums and benefits without a time limitation and that this exemption is incompatible with the principles established by the European Charter of Fundamental Rights (ECFR), namely equality between men and women and non-discrimination on the grounds of gender.

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Guy Carpenter published its semiannual report on key legislative developments in Europe affecting liability insurers and reinsurers. A number of these developments underscore the challenges in adapting local legislation and jurisprudence to European Union (EU) and international law.

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Catastrophe excess of loss ROLs were flat to up 5 percent in France at the January 1, 2012, reinsurance renewal. Per risk programs - both working layer and high risk excess - were flat year over year, largely because of primary market dynamics.

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A broad diversity of topics is investigated in our latest update:

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David Lewin, Managing Director
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The scandal surrounding the Mediator® diabetes drug (benfluorex hydrochloride) was revealed by Dr. Irene Frachon in June 2010 in her book, whose title could not be more explicit - “Mediator 150 mg - How Many Deaths?” This title triggered the first of many legal battles with Servier Laboratories, the manufacturer of the Mediator drug. While Servier won the first round, when judges ordered that “How Many Deaths?” be deleted from the book’s title, the Court of Appeal of Rennes later allowed the subtitle, emphasizing that the book was contributing to a legitimate debate regarding the Mediator case.

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Torrential rainfall across northern and central Italy and southeastern France has triggered widespread flooding, killing at least 11 people and causing damage to property and infrastructure. Reports said the heavy rainfall caused rivers to burst their banks and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes. The Italian city of Genoa was badly hit on November 4 after more than 350 millimeters of rain fell in six hours. Authorities in Italy have issued fresh flood alerts and are warning thousands more people will be at risk if the flooding continues.

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Click here to read the Executive Summary of Guy Carpenter’s report: Global Reinsurance Outlook: Points of Inflection; Positioning for Change in a Challenging Market >>

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Rates on line (ROL) for loss-free programs in France were relatively stable, as they were at the January 1, 2010 reinsurance renewal. On a risk-adjusted basis, pricing fell between 0 to 5 percent. There were few loss-affected programs in 2010, and those hit had only slight reinsurance rate increases. In the liability sector, markets remained disciplined.

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Claude Lefebvre, Head of GC Analytics European Operations
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Insurance-related catastrophe modeling has undergone a constant evolutionary drive for the past 25 years. The impetus behind the development of cat models began with the realization that large-scale events needed tracking to provide better means of managing insurance exposures to natural disasters.

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