The EU’s top court ruled on Thursday that requiring rail passengers to declare a gender when buying a ticket is in breach of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled against French rail operator SNCF, which has previously required passengers to self-declare as either “Monsieur” or “Madame” when booking train tickets online, deeming it unnecessary information under the GDPR.
The case was brought by the French association Mousse, whose mission is to “campaign for justice for the LGBTQI+ community,” according to its website.
However, they did not challenge the SNCF booking form for non-inclusion of alternatives to the Monsieur/Madame binary, instead turning to the GDPR to argue the need for any title whatsoever is excessive for the purpose of booking a train ticket.
The Court reiterated that data collection under GDPR “must be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary in the light of the purposes for which those data are processed.”
Judgements of the Court of Justice are final and cannot be appealed.
[Edited by Owen Morgan]