The ruling means Google will not have to delist results from its search engine globally and calls into question how far Euroe’s digital rules will spread to the rest of the world.
Background: The ‘right to be forgotten’ (RTBF) was introduced in 2014 by a ruling of the European Courts of Justice, which considered it to be part of the “right to erasure” in the Data Protection Directive of 1995. At the time, Google opposed the ruling, and soon established an advisory committee to find out how to best comply with the right. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which superseded the 1995 Directive also included the RTBF.
The right stays, but not everywhere: The European Court of Justice issued another ruling, prompted by a case in France. It had to determine whether the delisting of search results, which Google has to carry out to respect the RTBF, apply globally and therefore have to be extended to all versions of its search engine. It concluded that the delisting should not apply globally, because it can clash with other rights and with provisions of other jurisdictions, especially in the absence of cooperation mechanisms. Nonetheless, Google will have to remove results across all the EU member states, and put in place measures preventing a European user from searching results through a different version of a search engine, in order to circumvent the restrictions. The ruling also says that national data protection authorities retain the power to require global delisting, where appropriate.
Google is pleased: In a statement, Google welcomed the ECJ’s ruling, saying it has worked to implement the RTBF and to “strike a sensible balance between people’s right of access to information and privacy” since 2014.
