Vienna toilet fees lawsuit alleges sex discrimination

A Viennese woman is suing the city council, alleging discrimination because women must pay to use public toilet cubicles at some facilities while men can use urinals for free.

Melanie Gradik, 27, said she decided to act after visiting Vienna's Augarten park with a male friend. “He could go for free, but I had to pay 50 cents,” she told AFP. “Either we all pay 50 cents or no one pays 50 cents.”

Gradik has filed a legal complaint against the municipality, arguing that charging women for access to public toilets violates Vienna's anti-discrimination laws. Her lawyer, Petra Laback, said free urinals for men create inequality because “men have an additional free alternative, women do not”. Laback said a win could set a precedent across Austria.

Vienna has 168 publicly managed toilet facilities, 139 of them free to use, according to city authorities. The city says 29 facilities charge a fee because they employ toilet attendants. Municipal spokeswoman Sandra Holzinger said a 50-cent fee is charged for cubicles for people of all genders at those sites, while urinals are provided to prevent public urination.

Anna Gamper, a law professor at the University of Innsbruck, said Austrian law allows distinctions between men and women only with special, objective justification. She said such justification did not appear to exist for public toilets, because the cost of building, maintaining and cleaning cubicles and urinals is basically the same.

The Social Democrats and liberals, who govern Vienna together, have pledged to expand public toilet provision and examine whether public toilets could be made free for everyone. New public toilets opened in Augarten park in 2025 are free to use and accessible regardless of gender.