The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently ruled in Case C-247\/23 (Deldits) on whether an EU Member State may condition the rectification of gender identity data on proof of having undergone gender reassignment surgery. The CJEU held that such a requirement is not compatible with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and that Member States, when regulating the legal recognition of transgender individuals, must not infringe upon the rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
VP, an Iranian national, was granted refugee status in Hungary in 2014 based on their transgender identity. To support their application, they provided medical certificates from psychiatrists and gynecologists confirming that, although they were assigned female at birth, their gender identity was male. Despite being granted refugee status on this basis, VP was registered as female in the asylum register maintained by the Hungarian asylum authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, VP requested that the gender entry in the asylum register be rectified under the GDPR, relying on the aforementioned medical certificates. However, the request was denied on the grounds that VP had not provided proof of having undergone gender reassignment surgery. VP challenged this decision before the Budapest High Court, which then referred the matter to the CJEU, asking whether the GDPR requires the rectification of personal data in a public register and whether a Member State may restrict this right by requiring proof of surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CJEU first emphasized that the GDPR grants individuals the right to rectify inaccurate personal data, which concretizes the fundamental right under the Charter that guarantees everyone the right to access data concerning them and the right to have such data rectified. The accuracy of personal data must be assessed in light of the purpose for which it was collected. In this case, the purpose of gender data collection was to identify the individual, meaning that the data should reflect the person\u2019s lived gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court clarified that a Member State cannot refuse to rectify gender identity data simply because its national law does not provide a procedure for the legal recognition of transgender identity. While Member States retain competence over civil status matters, they must exercise that competence in compliance with EU law, including the GDPR and the Charter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CJEU further ruled that while a Member State may require relevant and sufficient evidence to establish that the data is inaccurate, such a requirement must remain reasonable. In this context, the Court found that conditioning the rectification of gender identity data on proof of surgery is impermissible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such a requirement would violate the essence of the right to bodily integrity and the right to respect for private life, which are protected under Articles 3 and 7 of the Charter. Moreover, such a requirement is neither necessary nor proportionate for ensuring the reliability of a public register. Instead, medical certificates, including a psychiatric diagnosis, may constitute sufficient evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CJEU ruled that a national authority responsible for maintaining a public register must rectify personal data relating to a person\u2019s gender identity when such data is inaccurate under the GDPR. Furthermore, a Member State cannot condition the right to rectification on proof of gender reassignment surgery, as this would constitute an unjustified interference with fundamental rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This ruling has significant implications for data protection and the legal recognition of transgender individuals in EU Member States, reinforcing that the rights guaranteed by the GDPR and the Charter cannot be limited by national legal gaps or administrative practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Finding yourself in need of legal services in Slovenia and looking for a law firm in Ljubljana, consider contacting us using our contact details as published on our\u00a0web page<\/a>. A qualified law firm can provide you with legal advice and representation \u2013 helping you navigate the complexities of Slovenian law and ensuring that your rights are protected. You can find more information on legal acts in Slovenia on the\u00a0official pages of the Slovenian\u00a0<\/a>government<\/a>. More legal topics can be found on our law firm\u00a0publications page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction – GDPR and Charter Question The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently ruled in Case C-247\/23 (Deldits) on whether an EU Member State may condition the rectification of gender identity data on proof of having undergone gender reassignment surgery. The CJEU held that such a requirement is not compatible with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[186,12,114,117,139,45,142,116,119,113,115],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications","tag-gdpr","tag-immigration-lawyer","tag-law-firm-in-slovenia","tag-law-firm-ljubljana","tag-law-firm-slovenia","tag-lawyer-in-slovenia","tag-lawyer-slovenia","tag-legal-services-slovenia","tag-slovenian-civil-law-firm","tag-slovenian-law-firm","tag-slovenian-lawyer"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":false,"list":false,"medium":false,"full":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852,"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odb.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}