EU ruling opens up insurance market in France

Foreign insurers are preparing to expand operations in France after the country was found guilty of tax discrimination. Following the 4 March judgement, the European Court of Justice has ordered the French government to apply the same procedure to European life assurance contracts distributed under the freedom of services as it does to French contracts. John Stone, chairman of Lombard International, which was recently acquired by Friends Provident, said that at present policyholders pay a higher rate of tax on exit from a non-French EU contract. The French authorities have not yet implem...