The case arose after a French regulator fined the US search engine €100,000 in 2015 and ordered it to delete listings from its global search results. Google challenged the decision.
Ruling in Google v CNIL (C-507/17), the CJEU stated there was currently ‘no obligation under EU law, for a search engine operator who grants a request for dereferencing made by a data subject... to carry out such a dereferencing on all the versions of its search engine’.
Under the right to be forgotten, citizens can force search engines to remove links to information about them, in certain circumstances.
Jane Ashford-Thom, reputation protection associate at Harbottle & Lewis, said: ‘The CJEU’s judgment reaffirms the fact that the right to be forgotten must be applied rigorously across all EU member states, so that attempts to search for infringing material from an EU member state will be fruitless.’
