Goods and services (Directive 2004/113)

• Author: Vegter, Marlies
• Pages: 66-69

66

9 Goods and services (Directive 2004/113)182

9.1 General (legal) context

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

goods and services

There are few surveys and/or reports about equal access to and supply of goods and

services that concern equal treatment of men and women. Much is written about the

removal of obstacles for people with disabilities. Race/ethnic background is a topic

covered, as is religion, especially in respect of access to goods and services of people with

a Muslim background. In the field of gender equality , attention is given to discrimination

in the collaborative economy, a s will be outlined in the Section 9.1.2 below. Attention is

also given to the situation of transgender people.

In 2018 the Transgender Network Netherlands (TNN) reported that discrimination against

transgender people had increased by 25 %.183 Part of this discrimination is related to

access to goods and services. For example, from cases brought before the NIHR it appears

that transgender or intersex people face difficulties in using the facilities of sports clubs,

saunas, fitness institutes, etc. There are insurances which do not cover certain treatments

that transgender people undergo.

9.1.2 Specific problems of discrimination in the online environment/digital

market/collaborative economy

Problems of discrimination in the online environment/digital market/collaborative economy

were, inter alia, described in an article by S. Burri and S. Heeger-Hertter in 2018.184 They

mentioned the fact that for women with care tasks it is more difficult to be available during

specific hours, such as the hours for taking children to school and picking them up at

dinner time in the evening. This makes their daily schedule less flexible, whereas flexibility

– and availability – are important determining factors for acquiring work in the gig

economy. There is also a risk of sexual harassment in certain si tuations and a risk that

platforms are especially directed at women in order to engage them for traditional female

work, such as cleaning and caring. Women also tend to ask for and get a lower rat e for

their work; because they themselves ask less and it i s also not clear who is responsible

for the pay rate. Algorithms may also entail more hidden discrimination, as they tend to

follow the preferences of the majority, preferences which might be rath er discriminatory.

It is not yet clear t o what extent these forms o f discrimination will indeed arise. Much is

written about the possibilities and risks of the collaborative economy, but how it will really

work out in practice has yet to become clear.

9.1.3 Political and societal debate

There is debate on th e topi c of discrimination and the digital market, but so far these

debates are predominantly of a theoretical nature. One more practical example i s the use

of algorithms to track d own discrimination in job advertisements . To do this a computer

was given a quantity of discriminatory texts in the field of age discrimination. Subsequently

it searched through approximately 2 million job a dvertisements to c heck wh ether they

were discriminatory. It found more than 40 000 discriminatory sentences. The method will

182 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

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

183 Transgender Netwerk Nederland (2019), Meldingen transgender discriminatie 2018 (Reports on transgender

discrimination 2018), 2019. Available at: https://www.transgendernetwerk.nl/wp-

content/uploads/20190423-discriminatiemonitor-2018.pdf.

184 Burri, S. and Heeger-Hertter, S. (2018), ‘Discriminatie in de platformeconomie juridisch bestrijden: geen

eenvoudige zaak’ (To combat discrimination in the platform economy legally: No simple matter), Ars Aequi,

2018(12), pp. 1000-1008.