Labour law and effectiveness of EU anti-discrimination legislation on the grounds of disability during the recruitment process: the case of the genetic features

The jurisprudence of the EU Court of Justice on non-discrimination law emphasises the importance of the notion of “non-deprivation”, a concept derived from the interpretation of the effectiveness (i.e. “effet utile”) in the Directive 2000/78/EC. In the context of discrimination on the grounds of disability in employment and occupation, this perspective is particularly relevant. The paper points out, also in the light of the technological and scientific development of AI, the link between disability and genetic characteristics as discriminatory factor in the EU legal framework, focusing particularly on the recruitment process. The study is complemented by the analysis of the protection of genetic features provided by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016) and by the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (2024).