Court decision · 13 May 2014
Google Spain SL and Google Inc. v AEPD and Mario Costeja González
Case C-131/12, ECLI:EU:C:2014:317 · Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber)
What it means for your code
Products that index or surface information about people need an erasure / delisting workflow.
What happened
A Spanish citizen asked Google to delist links to old newspaper announcements about his debts.
What was decided
A search engine operator is a controller for processing it performs when indexing and displaying results, and individuals may request delisting of inadequate, irrelevant or no-longer-relevant information.
The legal test applied
- Indexing and displaying personal data is processing for which the operator is a controller
- Individuals may obtain delisting of results that are inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, balanced against the public interest
What would have changed the outcome
- Information about public figures or of continuing public interest may justify continued listing
Read the decision at the source
Summary and analysis by Lawpatch, checked by an editor against the source. Risk analysis, not legal advice; the law may have moved on since this decision.