Goods and services (Directive 2004/113)

• Author: Panagiota Petroglou
• Pages: 115-118

115

9Goods and services (Directive 2004/113)461

9.1General (legal) context

9.1.1Surveys and reports about the difficulties linked to equal access to and supply of

goods and services

In 2019, an article on the prohibition of discrimination in the provision of insurance and

credit products and services analysed the CJEU Test-Achats judgment and the relevant

provisions of Directive 2004/113. Although in this field an explicit prohibition of

discrimination is provided only on the grounds of sex and race, the author argues that

providers of such services are not free to take into account other characteristics that

interfere with the narrow core of the personality of the individual to a lesser (age) or a

greater grade (religion, sexual orientation) when fixing the price of relevant products and

services and that a complex balancing of the different interests should take place in each

particular case.462

9.1.2Specific problems of discrimination in the online environment/digital

market/collaborative economy

There are no signs of emerging problems of discrimination concerning access to and supply

of goods and services in the online environment/digital market/collaborative economy.

9.1.3Political and societal debate

There has been no political and/or societal debate on this topic.

9.2Prohibition of direct and indirect discrimination

Greek law prohibits direct and indirect discrimination on grounds of sex in access to goods

and services in Act 3769/2009.463

The new Criminal Code in Greece,464 which was introduced by Law 4619/2019465 and came

into force on 1 July 2019 by replacing the previous Code of the year 1950, abolished Article

361B that concerned punishment of provision of goods and services in cases where this

provision was based on grounds of discrimination. Article 361B had been introduced in the

previous Criminal Code by Article 29 of Act 4356/2015.466Specifically, Chapter 21 of the

current Greek Criminal Code abrogates Article 361B of the previous Code which stated

that whoever supplies goods or offers services or announces through a public call the

supply of goods or provision of services by excluding out of disdain individuals based on

characteristics of, inter alia, gender identity or gender characteristics, shall be punished

with imprisonment of a minimum of three months and a fine of at least EUR 1 500Σ.

However, it should be highlighted that this repeal does not affect the general interdiction

of discrimination regarding access to goods and services enshrined in Act 4443/2016. In

461 See e.g. Caracciolo di Torella, E. and McLellan, B. (2018) Gender equality and the collaborative economy

European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination, available at:

www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/4573-gender-equality-and-the-collaborative-economy-pdf-721-kb.

462 Papikinou, A. (2019), ΡH 

Σ (The prohibition of discrimination in the provision of insurance and credit

products and services) in:  () (Centre for

International and European Economic Law) (ed.), iigkjjigggijk

hgji (Contractual freedom and the prohibition of discrimination), Sakkoulas, pp. 55-89.

463 Act 3769/2009, OJ A 105/1.7.2009.

464 EELN flash report (Greece) of 15 July 2019, ΡAbolition of punishment of activities of discriminatory provision

of goods and servicesΣ, available at: https://www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/4940-greece-repeal-of-article-

361b-of-the-greek-criminal-code-pdf-79-kb.

465 Act 4619/2019, OJ A 95/11.6.2019.

466 Act 4536/2015, OJ A 181/24.12.2015.