Országos Idegenrendészeti Főigazgatóság – CJEU Judgment (Hungary, 2025)

The data subject is a trans person who was granted refugee status in Hungary. When applying for this status, they pointed out that they identified as male and relied on their transsexuality as the ground for their recognition as a refugee. However, the Hungarian National Directorate-General for Immigration Policing (Országos Idegenrendészeti Főigazgatóság, the controller) recorded them in the register as female. In 2022, the data subject, pursuant to Article 16 GDPR, submitted a request to the controller to rectify the asylum register in two particulars: a change of the name under which they had been registered and a change of gender from female to male. On 11 October 2022, the controller rejected the request, arguing that the documents provided by the data subject did not prove that they had undergone gender reassignment surgery and that the applicant’s gender had changed. Therefore, the data subject brought proceedings before the Budapest High Court (Fővárosi Törvényszék). This court, having doubts regarding the interpretation of Article 16 GDPR, stayed the proceedings and referred the following questions to the CJEU: # Must Article 16 of the GDPR be interpreted as meaning that, in connection with the exercise of the rights of the data subject, the authority responsible for keeping registers under national law is required to rectify the personal data relating to the gender of that data subject recorded by that authority, where those data have changed after they were entered in the register and therefore do not comply with the principle of accuracy established in Article 5(1)(d) of the GDPR? # If the answer to the first question referred is in the affirmative, must Article 16 of the GDPR be interpreted as meaning that it requires the person requesting rectification of the data relating to his or her gender to provide evidence in support of the request for rectification? # If the answer to the second question referred is in the affirmative, must Article 16 of the GD