Az egyének védelme az interneten elérhető személyes adataik keresőmotorok általi kezelésének vonatkozásában – az Európai Unió Bírósága

Absztrakt

The Google case before the Court of Justice raised very interesting points about, on the one hand, data protection rules, in particular the so-called “right to be forgotten” and its application to search engines and, on the other hand, the territorial scope of EU data protection rules, in particular their application to internet companies based outside the EU.

The case started with a number of complaints from Spanish residents to the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) about information concerning events several years previous that could be found upon googling their name. The AEPD upheld the complaints and issued a decision calling on Google Inc. and its daughter Google Spain to take the necessary measures to withdraw the data from their index and to render future access to the information impossible via their search engine. Both companies appealed against that decision before the Spanish courts. In the national proceedings two main issues arose upon which a ruling from the Court of Justice was sought. As for the first one, the Court ruled that an internet search engine operator is responsible for the processing of personal data which appear on web pages published by third parties. Thus, if, following a search made on the basis of a person’s name, the list of results displays a link to a web page which contains information on him, the person in question may ask the operator directly to remove that link from the list of results. Should the operator not grant his request, the matter can be brought before the competent authorities and courts in order to obtain, under certain conditions, that removal.

As for the second issue, the Court set out that, despite being located in California, US, Google Inc. must comply with EU data protection rules since its Spanish daughter company participates in Spain in the promotion and sale of advertising space offered by the Google search engine.