MR JUSTICE WARBY
Approved Judgment
NT1 & NT2 v Google LLC
(a)
if the requirements mentioned in paragraph 7 of Part II
of Schedule 1 have been complied with, the court may,
instead of making an order under subsection (1), make
an order requiring the data to be supplemented by such
statement of the true facts relating to the matters dealt
with by the data as the court may approve, and
(b)
if all or any of those requirements have not been
complied with, the court may, instead of making an
order under that subsection, make such order as it
thinks fit for securing compliance with those
requirements with or without a further order requiring
the data to be supplemented by such a statement as is
mentioned in paragraph (a).
(3) Where the court(a)
makes an order under subsection (1), or
(b)
is satisfied on the application of a data subject that
personal data of which he was the data subject and
which have been rectified, blocked, erased or
destroyed were inaccurate,
it may, where it considers it reasonably practicable, order the
data controller to notify third parties to whom the data have
been disclosed of the rectification, blocking, erasure or
destruction.”
86.
It is clear from these provisions that even where data are found to be inaccurate the
Court has a toolbox of discretionary remedies that can be applied according to the
circumstances of the individual case. Indeed, the Court may grant a remedy even if
by virtue of paragraph 7 of Sch 1 Part II the data are not found to be inaccurate. At
one extreme, the Court may deem it appropriate to order a data controller both to
block and erase data, and to tell third parties to whom the data have been disclosed
that this has been done. At the other extreme, the Court may conclude that no order
should be made. Between those two extremes lies a variety of options. The Court’s
order will need to be tailored to the circumstances, having regard to the effect a
particular remedy would have on the parties and on the wider public. Some options
might be excessive. If a long article on a matter of public interest containing a
substantial amount of information about the claimant was found to contain one
inaccuracy, of a relatively minor nature, the knock-on effects of blocking access via
an ISE such as Google might make it hard to justify the grant of that remedy.
Rectification, or an order under s 14(2) might be a more appropriate course. Such an
option might not be available on the facts of a given case. It could be, for instance,
that an ISE lacked the technical ability to add to an individual search result or snippet
an indication of “the data subject’s view that the data are inaccurate”, or a
supplementary statement of “the true facts”. The evidence in this case does not tell me
anything about that, probably because the claimants have not sought rectification or
any lesser remedy than blocking and erasure.
87.
It seems to me legitimate to have regard in this context also to the contours of the
English law of defamation, which has always allowed a generous latitude to those