EU court: ‘Asking for gender identity to buy train tickets violates EU rules’

Brussels – ‘Ma’am’ or ‘sir’? Neither one nor the other. When buying train tickets, first and last names suffice, and any gender indication is superfluous. It is not necessary for transaction purposes, and requiring it to be specified violates the EU rules on personal data provided by GDPR, this Court of Justice of the European Union said, clarifying the scope of the new EU regulations on privacy and processing of citizens’ information.

Data collected “must be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary” in light of the purposes for which they are processed, the Luxembourg judges said. The justice body added that selling a travel ticket does not justify requesting information beyond what is strictly necessary.

The Court of Justice finds that a personalization of commercial communication based on an assumed gender identity according to the customer’s title – ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ – “does not appear to be objectively indispensable in order to enable the proper performance of a rail transport contract.”

In essence, indicating “ma’am” or “sir” is not a necessary piece of information to purchase a train ticket, and, therefore, one cannot be required to do so.