Filenews 8 December 2025 - by Despina Psyllou
An end to gold insurance premiums and at the same time securing the rights of the approximately 74,000 drivers who are over 70 years old, they hope to secure two bills, which will be submitted for voting in January by the Human Rights Committee to the Plenary Session of the Parliament. These proposals have often occupied the Parliament, with insurance companies expressing their disagreement and warning that any modification of premiums for the elderly will bring about an increase for the rest of the population.
With the aim of cracking down on profiteering based solely on age criteria against drivers aged 70 and over, MP Alexandra Attalidou has prepared two law proposals.
The first draft law prohibits an insurance company from directly or indirectly discriminating against a person aged 70 or over when concluding, renewing or pricing an insurance contract. In addition, the insurance company may not use a driver's age as the sole or exclusive criterion for concluding a contract or imposing unfavourable conditions. The insurance company may also not vary or change the premium to those over 70 years of age, unless the differentiation of premiums is based on evidence of the risk that exists. In case of violation of the above, a fine of up to €100,000 will be imposed on insurance companies.
The second draft law provides that the insurer may not refuse to any person the conclusion of an insurance contract without providing sufficient and documented justification, which must be transmitted to him in writing. Otherwise, the Insurance Commissioner may impose an administrative fine of up to €3,500.
The Legal Service and the Cyprus Bar Association do not seem to consider age as a factor on the basis of which a charge is justified, which is also the case in the majority of foreign countries. The only exception, apart from Cyprus, are the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
On behalf of the Cyprus Bar Association, only the hesitation that there should be no discrimination against other age groups was expressed. For its part, the Legal Service underlined that "there is an issue of discrimination in the increase of the premium based solely on age"
From the office of the Commissioner for Administration, it was mentioned that it must regulate the gap so that the evaluation on a case-by-case basis is included in the legislation, as something binding.
It is not the responsibility of the Superintendent of Insurance
Disagreement to take over the control of the insurance companies was expressed on behalf of the Superintendent of Insurance of the Ministry of Finance.
The supervisor is not a lawyer or a judge to resolve private disputes, it was underlined and added that they only examine from a supervisory point of view and that is why disagreement was expressed about the role of the Superintendent as stated in the law proposals.
"If the insurance companies go bankrupt, we will have a serious problem," it was underlined and added that the purpose of the Insurance Commissioner is not to bankrupt a company and for the insurance companies to be solvent.
There is no question, the insurance companies indicate
There are about 74,000 drivers over 70 currently in Cyprus, said the general director of the Association of Insurance Companies, Andreas Athanasiadis. Of these, he said, only 3,000 faced refusal to be insured by a company and ended up, after three rejections, in the Consortium. That is, he underlined, one in 29.
As for the refusal of an insurance company, he states that no legislation can oblige it to accept every customer. "As is the case with a lawyer, who is not obliged to accept every citizen."
He reiterated the fear that if insurance premiums for the elderly need to be reduced, then insurance premiums for others will increase.
