Google wins EU court case against removal of information

On Tuesday, the EU’s top court ruled that Google isn’t required to apply the bloc’s “right to be forgotten” rules on a worldwide level.

These rules require that an individual be able to ask a company to remove personal information from the internet, or in Google’s case,  their search engine. In 2015, France’s privacy regulator CNIL demanded that the removal of information apply to Google’s global database, to prevent even those outside the EU from obtaining information on EU citizens.

Google faced fines up to $100,000 for failing to comply with the order, but were backed by a number of other companies and freedom-of-information proponents, arguing that allowing one country or bloc to mandate removals of information worldwide would create dangerous precedent, targeting not only personal information but even suppressing news articles.

The European Court of Justice, whose rulings hold sway over all national courts within the EU and cannot be appealed, has now stated that there is no obligation under EU law for a search engine to remove access to information beyond the EU member states.

The decision leaves open the possibility for France and other national governments in the European Union to force Google to take down links globally in special cases judged necessary to protect an individual’s privacy.

The ECJ has also called on Google to put measures in place to stop European users from accessing non-EU versions of its site, and thus bypassing the in-EU restrictions.