MR JUSTICE WARBY
Approved Judgment
NT1 & NT2 v Google LLC
accurate information about them to be “forgotten” in the narrow sense of being
removed from the search results returned by an ISE in response to a search on the
claimant’s name. No doubt a successful claim against Google would be applied to and
by other ISEs. But it does not follow that the information at issue would have to be
removed from the public record, or that a similar request would have to be complied
with by a media publisher on whose website the same information appeared. In these
proceedings the claimants are not asking for any such remedy. It is also worth noting
here a point that I shall come back to: a successful delisting request or order in respect
of a specified URL will not prevent Google returning search results containing that
URL; it only means that the URL must not be returned in response to a search on the
claimant’s name.
39.
Part II of the Working Party’s Guideline document sets out 13 “common criteria” for
the handling of complaints by data protection authorities (known in the document as
“DPAs”). Each criterion is accompanied by an extensive commentary. All parties are
agreed that it is this Part of the Guideline document that will be of the greatest use to
me in assessing the claims. Although not all of the “common criteria” are relevant to
the present cases, most of them have at least some relevance. I shall refer to the
applicable criteria and relevant commentary when assessing the claims. At this stage
it is useful to note the status and role of these criteria, which are explained in the
Guidelines document in this way:
“... the list of common criteria which the DPAs will apply to
handle the complaints, on a case-by-case basis ... should be
seen as a flexible working tool which aims at helping DPAs
during the decision-making processes. The criteria will be
applied in accordance with the relevant national legislations.
No single criterion is, in itself, determinative. The list of
criteria is non-exhaustive and will evolve over time, building
on the experience of DPAs.”
40.
Part II itself further explains that the criteria are based on “a first analysis of the
complaints so far received from data subjects whose delisting requests were refused
by the search engines”. It goes on to say that:-.
“... In most cases, it appears that more than one criterion will
need to be taken into account in order to reach a decision. In
other words, no single criterion is, in itself, determinative.
Each criterion has to be applied in the light of the principles
established by the CJEU and in particular in the light of the
“the interest of the general public in having access to [the]
information””.
The GDPR
41.
Article 17 is in the following terms:
“1.
The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the
controller the erasure of personal data concerning him
or her without undue delay and the
controller