MR JUSTICE WARBY
Approved Judgment
NT1 & NT2 v Google LLC
98. As this court stated in the Benkharbouche case [2016] QB
347, paras 69—85, (i) where there is a breach of a right
afforded under EU law, article 47 of the Charter is engaged; (ii)
the right to an effective remedy for breach of EU law rights
provided for by article 47 embodies a general principle of EU
law; (iii) (subject to exceptions which have no application in
the present case) that general principle has horizontal effect;
(iv) in so far as a provision of national law conflicts with the
requirement for an effective remedy in article 47, the domestic
courts can and must disapply the conflicting provision; and (v)
the only exception to (iv) is that the court may be required to
apply a conflicting domestic provision where the court would
otherwise have to redesign the fabric of the legislative scheme.”
Google Spain
32.
The claimant was a Spanish national who wanted to remove two links on Google
Search to an auction notice posted on a Spanish newspaper’s website, following his
bankruptcy. He complained that the auction notice was many years out of date and
was no longer relevant. When the newspaper and Google declined to remove the links
to the notice, he brought a complaint to the Spanish data protection authority against
the newspaper, Google, and Google Spain SL, its Spanish subsidiary. The CJEU held
that Google was bound by the DP Directive because it had set up a subsidiary in an
EU member state which was intended to promote and sell advertising space offered
by Google Search and which orientated its activity towards the inhabitants of that
state. The CJEU proceeded to hold as follows:
(1)
In making available information containing personal data published on the
internet by third parties an entity operating an ISE is processing personal data
for the purposes of the DP Directive, and is a data controller in respect of that
processing, with an obligation to ensure “within the framework of its
responsibilities, powers and capabilities”, that the data subject’s rights are
protected in accordance with the DP Directive: see in particular [28], [33-34],
[38].
(2)
There is a “right to be forgotten”: a data subject's fundamental rights under
articles 7 and 8 of the Charter entitle them to request that information no
longer be made available to the general public by means of a list of results
displayed following a search made by reference to their name, and their rights
may override the rights and interests of the ISE and those of the general public.
It is unnecessary for the data subject to show that the inclusion of the
information in the search results caused prejudice. See in particular [94], [96].
(3)
Upon application by a data subject a national authority or court can therefore,
in an appropriate case, order the operator under Article 12(b) and/or 14(1)(a)
of the DP Directive to remove, from search results displayed following a
search made on a person's name, links to web pages published by third parties
containing information relating to that person; this may be so, even if that
name or information has not been erased beforehand or simultaneously from
those web pages, and even where the publication of the information on those
web pages is lawful: see in particular [81], [85], [94], [99].