Direct discrimination

For the purposes of the AGG, you are discriminated against when you arexperience less favourable treatment than any other person with different characteristics but in a comparable situation, e.g. with reference to your origins, skin colour or language and/or religion.

That means, for example:

  • Denial of, or disadvantageous conditions for migrants concerning
    • insurance contracts (for example, liability insurance)
    • credit contracts/ the opening of an account
    • sales contracts
  • A dark-skinned German is not employed because of his or her skin colour, despite having outstanding qualifications.
  • Discrimination against families with a history of migration in the allocation of housing
  • Denial of entry into a nightclub or gym due to actual or attributed origin

The AGG additionally protects those who are discriminated against on the grounds of age, disability, gender, religion and sexual orientation.

As examples Notes:  

  • A health insurance company refuses a 65 year-old rehabilitation treatment on the grounds that reintegration into the employment industry is no longer necessary.
  • A wheelchair user is not permitted to enter a musical without professional supervision.
  • An orchestra only employs male musicians.
  • A Muslim employee in a pharmacy is denied by her employer wearing a headscarf with the reference to the "deterrent effect" on customers.
  • A homosexual couple is refused to rent a hotel room.

Permitted unequal treatment:

According to the AGG unequal treatment is  justified if existent disadvantages are likely to be impeded or compensated for by an action for a group of people.

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