California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, in a Notice sent yesterday to more than 750 insurance companies, ordered insurers that use “price optimization” techniques in California to end the practice in all lines of insurance within six months. He also barred insurance companies from including these pricing practices in any future filings. Price optimization is a technique by which insurance companies estimate or measure the shopping habits of its customers in order to set individual premiums as high as possible regardless of a customer's risk profile.