Discrimination is the concept that someone has been treated “less favourably” than others as a result of a particular characteristic that they possess. With minor exceptions, treating someone less favourably is unlawful where that characteristic is, for example, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, sex, sexual orientation or religion and belief. The central question is “less favourably than whom?” This requires a comparator, who does not have the particular characteristic which is presumed to be the reason for the discrimination, enabling a comparison to be made. The comparator can be a real or a hypothetical person.
