C-247/23 Deldits: Gender Identity Through the Lens of the Right to Rectification of Personal Data

Case C‑247/23 Deldits, Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (First Chamber) of 13 March 2025
Do individuals have a right to have the gender recorded in an EU Member State’s public register rectified to reflect the gender they identify with, if it was inaccurately recorded from the outset? According to the CJEU, if the purpose of recording their gender is to identify them, the short answer to this question is ‘yes’. With its ruling in Deldits, the Court not only correctly goes against a worrying trend to erase ‘gender’ from legal language. The CJEU also clarifies, for the first time, several key aspects of Article 16 GDPR: it confirms the purpose-dependent approach to accuracy and elaborates, albeit inconclusively, on the burden and standard of proof of (in)accuracy required under the said provision.