The burden of proof rule under EU non-discrimination law and algorithmic discrimination : addressing challenges and possibilities

Blaker Strand, Vibeke (author)

Emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, present significant challenges to discrimination law, particularly regarding effective enforcement. This article highlights the evidentiary difficulties in proving algorithmic discrimination and examines the rule on the burden of proof under EU non-discrimination law in this context. It discusses challenges and possibilities relating to the role of the burden of proof rule in enhancing the principle of equality and non-discrimination, particularly in relation to algorithmic discrimination. A key obstacle is the lack of transparency, a problem not unique to algorithmic discrimination but also a well-known challenge in the field of pay discrimination. The article argues that valuable insights can be drawn from how the burden of proof rule has been developed and concretised under EU law on the right to equal pay between women and men, with particular attention to the 2023 Pay Transparency Directive.

• Language: English
• Keywords: algorithmic discrimination, proof, equality, effective enforcement, equal pay
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PF - Faculty of Law
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 30.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 165-182, 265-266
• Numbering: Letn. 85
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180343
• UDC: 347.949:316.647.82:331.2
• ISSN on article: 1854-3839
• DOI: 10.51940/2025.1.165-182
• COBISS.SI-ID: 270327555
• Publication date in RUL: 06.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Zbornik znanstvenih razprav
• Shortened title: Zb. znan. razpr.
• Publisher: Pravna fakulteta
• ISSN: 1854-3839
• COBISS.SI-ID: 223437312

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Pravilo o dokaznem bremenu v okviru prava EU o nediskriminaciji in algoritemska diskriminacija : izzivi in možnosti

Abstract

Nove tehnologije, vključno z umetno inteligenco, so pomemben izziv za protidiskriminacijsko pravo, zlasti glede njegovega učinkovitega izvajanja. Avtorica obravnava težave pri dokazovanju algoritemske diskriminacije in v tem kontekstu preučuje pravilo o dokaznem bremenu v okviru protidiskriminacijskega prava EU. Hkrati obravnava izzive in možnosti, povezane z vlogo pravila o dokaznem bremenu pri krepitvi načela enakosti in nediskriminacije, zlasti v zvezi z algoritemsko diskriminacijo. Ključna ovira je pomanjkanje preglednosti. Gre za težavo, ki ni značilna le za algoritemsko diskriminacijo, temveč je tudi dobro znan izziv na področju diskriminacije pri plačilu. Avtorica zagovarja, da je mogoče pridobiti dragocene vpoglede iz načina, kako je bilo pravilo o dokaznem bremenu razvito in konkretizirano v okviru prava EU o pravici do enakega plačila žensk in moških, s posebnim poudarkom na Direktivi o preglednosti plačil iz leta 2023.

• Keywords: algoritemska diskriminacija, dokaz, enakost, učinkovito izvrševanje, enako plačilo