§ 19 AGG regulates on which areas of civil law the protection against discrimination of the AGG applies. This includes, for instance, the conclusion of insurance, purchase or rental contracts.

The norm should be altered since it violates in some parts - regarding different categories of discrimination - the European legal provisions, offers a gateway for racist unequal treatment, as well as permits protection for the different categories of discrimination to a varying degree.

Firstly, the scope of application of § 19 AGG is - contrary to European law - too narrow. Thereby, many cases in which discrimination may occur are not covered by the prohibition of discrimination in the AGG. Read more…

Further, § 19 (3) and (5) AGG stipulate that in different areas, for example when renting houses, exceptions to the prohibition of discrimination are possible. The European law is violated and the possibility of unsanctionable racist discrimination becomes possible here as well. Read more…

There is a fundamental need for improvement with regard to the different levels of protection against discrimination based on various grounds of § 1 AGG. Under § 19 (2) AGG, the prohibition of discrimination in civil legal relations applies only to racial discrimination and discrimination based on ethnic ascription. While discrimination based on ideology is not prohibited here, discrimination based on the other grounds mentioned in § 1 AGG shall only be inadmissible within the scope of bulk businesses, transactions similar to them as well as private insurances. This is a hierarchisation that makes uniform legal protection and secure application of the law more difficult or impossible and therefore appears to need revision.

The difficulties of such hierarchical legal protection are particularly evident in multidimensional discrimination cases. A hijab or niqab wearing woman who is denied the finalisation of a business transaction that is not considered a bulk business, e.g. the conclusion of a rental agreement with a landlord who does not rent more than 50 apartments, must carefully consider the ground of discrimination she invokes in order to obtain legal protection.