Status: 08.12.2022 1:48 p.m
Good news for victims of false claims on the Internet: According to a ECJ ruling, search engine operators must delete the link to it. However, those affected must provide the evidence themselves.
According to a decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the search engine operator Google must remove references to data that has been proven to be incorrect. If a person can prove that a search query leads to a website with obvious false information, the company must remove the corresponding link, the judges ruled.
This does not require a judicial decision, but the persons concerned only have to present the evidence that they can reasonably be expected to compile.
Blackmailed by dubious website with false claims
In the current case, a couple who offer investments with their investment companies had sued. An American website had reported critically about its investment models. The couple claims that this website is dubious. Their operators blackmailed them with false claims and only deleted them when those affected paid money.
The two wanted Google to remove the articles from the questionable website from the search results. But the company refused because the facts were unclear. The couple went before the German courts, and the Federal Court of Justice, as the highest German civil court, asked the ECJ in Luxembourg how the matter should be assessed under European law.
Google and Co. have to be careful with “thumbnails”.
With the judgment, the court in Luxembourg not only relieves those who complain. The operators of search engines are also relieved: He makes it clear that they do not research anything themselves, i.e. do not have to take any action.
Nevertheless, in the future, Google and similar providers will have to check more closely which results they list in the event of complaints – especially in the case of photos. Because a photo in the wrong context can be very stressful for the person concerned, the search engine has to be particularly careful with the so-called thumbnails, i.e. the small pictures in the result list.
The “right to be forgotten” has been in effect since 2014
The ECJ had already granted users a “right to be forgotten” in 2014 with the “Google Spain” judgment. It obliges search engine operators to remove links to websites with sensitive personal information from the list of results under certain circumstances. However, the court had restricted that the public, for example, had a greater interest in finding information about famous people.
The European Union data protection law, which came into force in 2018, only allows an exception if this is necessary for the exercise of the right to information.
The case goes back to the Federal Court of Justice
It is still unclear how things will turn out for the couple. That must now be decided by the Federal Court of Justice, to which the case goes back. This will be based on the new line of the European Court of Justice: If the couple can prove in a reasonably comprehensible way that the information on the American website is obviously wrong, then Google will have to remove this page from its results.
Ref. C-460/20
With information from Gigi Deppe, ARD legal department