Top EU court rules that rail firms can’t demand to know customer’s gender

A French LGBTQ+ rights group filed a complaint after the railway company SNCF required customers to select a title when buying tickets online.

According to ‘Euronews’, the EU’s highest court in Luxembourg ruled that consumers of the French rail service, SNCF, do not need to indicate gender tags like Mr. or Mrs. when purchasing tickets online.

The ruling followed a challenge by the French association Mousse to SNCF Connect’s online ticket purchasing process. Mousse argued before the French data protection authority, CNIL, that the practice violated the EU’s privacy rules.

Mousse, which supports LGBTQ+ rights, claimed that asking for a title related to gender identity fails to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mandates that companies minimise data collection.

SNCF argued that knowing a customer’s gender helps personalise communications and tailor services, such as granting access to women-only carriages on night trains.

In 2021, CNIL dismissed Mousse’s complaint, stating the practice did not breach GDPR. Mousse then appealed to the French Conseil d’État, which requested clarification from the EU’s Court of Justice.

The Court ruled in agreement with its Advocate-General Maciej Szpunar’s July opinion, stating, “personalisation of commercial communication based on presumed gender identity according to a customer’s title is not indispensable for fulfilling a rail transport contract.”

The court suggested the railway company could use generic, inclusive expressions when communicating with customers, “which have no correlation with the presumed gender identity.”

Association Mousse stated that “European citizens can [now] invoke it before national courts, and all public and private entities are bound to comply. In practical terms, this judgment has direct and indirect effects paving the way for significant advancements in LGBT+ rights across the EU.”