---
title: "Disparate treatment"
description: "Treating a person less favourably because of a protected characteristic such as race, sex or age, including through a feature or rule that deliberately stands in for it."
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/disparate-treatment
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-24
---

# Disparate treatment

Treating a person less favourably because of a protected characteristic such as race, sex or age, including through a feature or rule that deliberately stands in for it [1]. The EU counterpart is direct discrimination [2].

- Developed in: [ch. 16, Disparate treatment and disparate impact](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/fairness-and-explainability#disparate-treatment-and-disparate-impact); [ch. 20, Disparate treatment, disparate impact and proxies](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/existing-law#disparate-treatment-disparate-impact-and-proxies)
- Chapters: [ch. 16, Fairness & XAI](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/fairness-and-explainability) · [ch. 20, Existing Law](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/existing-law)
- Contrast with: [Disparate impact](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/disparate-impact)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-disparate-treatment

## Sources

[1] 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 (Title VII: unlawful employment practices; 2000e-2(k) burden of proof in disparate-impact cases, business necessity and less discriminatory alternatives). Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2000e-2 (verified: secondary)
[2] Council Directive 2000/43/EC (Racial Equality Directive) (Art. 2(2)(a) direct and 2(2)(b) indirect discrimination, with objective justification). Official Journal of the EU (EUR-Lex). 2000-06-29. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2000/43/oj/eng (verified: primary)