By Timo Kirez
GENEVA (AA) - Young foreigners in Switzerland pay up to over 74% more for car insurance than native policyholders, according to a study that Swiss price comparison platform Comparis released on Tuesday.
In the study sent out in a press release, the platform said young people from Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Türkiye in particular pay more than the Swiss when insuring their automobiles.
According to the study, the biggest difference in premiums was among 20-year-old Kosovars in Basel, Switzerland's third-largest city, who drive a Mercedes-Benz GLC.
These young Kosovars pay an average of 74.4% more for fully comprehensive insurance. They are followed by young people from North Macedonia (73.6%) and Türkiye (72.9%).
Young Portuguese people in Basel also pay more to insure a Mercedes-Benz GLC. According to the study, the figure for them was 24.2%.
For older drivers, foreigner surcharges were slightly lower, but still significant, said Comparis.
For example, according to the data, a 42-year-old Kosovar in Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, pays 54.8% more than a Swiss person.
The premium for a North Macedonian is 54.7% higher than a native resident, while a Turkish person pays 53.7% more for insurance with full coverage.
Using nationality as a criterion in setting car insurance premiums is not new in Switzerland.
In 2021, Swiss politician Mustafa Atici from the Swiss Socialist Party criticized insurance companies for this practice.
"This is a rip-off. Thousands of people have to pay more across the board without ever having caused an accident," Atici told the Swiss daily Blick in 2021.
In 2011, Swiss politician Lumengo Ricardo had tabled a parliamentary question in the lower house of the Swiss parliament to examine whether the approach was discriminatory.
However, the government at the time defended the insurance companies' actions.
"Due to the high statistical significance, every provider also includes the 'country of origin' criterion in one form or another to a greater or lesser extent. In principle, this is not objectionable," the federal government wrote in its response in 2011.
It also said that it had carried out a constitutional investigation by the Federal Office of Justice.
According to the federal government, this clarification revealed that the "risk-related tariffs that have become known to date, which also differentiate according to nationality, do not constitute a violation of the principle of equal rights or unlawful discrimination, provided they can be statistically proven."