A ruling by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main has determined that Deutsche Bahn Fernverkehr AG (German Rail) cannot mandate customers to provide email addresses or mobile phone numbers when purchasing Sparpreis (Saver) and Super-Sparpreistickets.
The court’s decision, delivered Friday, found that the data processing practices violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) because the collection of personal information was deemed unnecessary for contract fulfillment.
Previously, until December 2024, Deutsche Bahn had required the provision of personal data, even during in-person ticket purchases at counters, as a prerequisite for acquiring these discounted tickets. The court considered this practice not to constitute voluntary consent from customers, but rather an unacceptable form of coercion. Judges stated that the digital ticket format primarily served internal company objectives, such as advertising and customer retention, rather than the core business of passenger transport.
The ruling is legally binding and directly impacts the distribution of these affordable rail tickets. The court emphasized that companies must facilitate access to their services using the minimum possible amount of personal data.
