EU Offers Guidance on 'Right to be Forgotten' Ruling

An EU Working Party has published new Guidelines on the 'Right to be Forgotten', intended to help search engines to implement the ruling by the EU's Court of Justice (ECJ) in May, which required them to consider requests from individuals for the removal of links to information about them.

The controversial ruling allowed individuals to contact search engines asking for irrelevant, outdated or 'excessive' information about them to be removed from search results: search engines must consider such requests but are not obliged to comply; and there is no requirement for end publishers to remove or consider removing the pages to which they link.

The latest release by the EU's Article 29 Working Party attempts to give context to the looser legal phrases first used in the judgement, including a list of common criteria which search engines can (as opposed to must) apply in handling complaints. Among the key recommendations is the controversial belief that privacy should take priority - with the rights of the individual generally prevailing over commercial interests and freedom of expression.

The Guidelines also offer help with defining the term 'people in public life' used in the initial judgement; outline a wide range of acceptable methods of complaint for individuals (including off-line); define the territorial scope of the judgement to cover any company with subsidiaries in the EU; and discuss the required extent of de-listing and the need to inform publishers and individuals about the decision taken.

The decision on whether or not to de-list particular results should, according to the Guidelines, be 'a routine assessment' - a view regarded by at least one legal commentator as 'optimistic' (see www.datagovernancelaw.com ).

Google, the runaway leader in search in Europe and the subject of the initial case, brought by a Spanish plaintiff, said four weeks after the initial judgement that it was receiving about 10,000 requests for removal each day.