The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Thursday against the requirement to check a "Mr" or "Ms" box when purchasing a transport ticket online.
The court determined that obliging customers to indicate a title, and thus a gender identity, solely for personalised commercial communication purposes, violates GDPR provisions on personal data processing.
The Luxembourg-based court was responding to a question from the French Council of State, which handled an appeal from the association Mousse. They argued that SNCF Connect, the French railway booking platform, should not require customers to select "Mr" or "Ms" when buying a ticket.
The court confirmed that according to the principle of "data minimisation", collected data must be relevant and limited to what is necessary. The court noted that to communicate with customers about a transport ticket, requiring a title is "not objectively indispensable".
Railway companies could use generic, inclusive salutations without linking them to the customer’s presumed gender identity, providing a less intrusive and practicable solution.
The court also highlighted that if collecting such data serves a legitimate interest, it must be clearly indicated to customers at the time of collection. In any case, data processing should remain strictly necessary.
