Various EU anti-discrimination directives have been implemented in Germany in the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG). The law is aimed at individuals or companies. In practice, however, there are algorithms that discriminate, for example by simply excluding people of a certain age or origin from being granted a loan.
The Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination, Ferda Altman, is therefore right to call for the law to be amended accordingly; in an article worth reading in the LTO of 31 August 2023, she lists a number of discriminatory circumstances that can be traced back to the algorithms alone.
