Silvia Martinelli

A while ago the Swedish Data Protection Authority requested Google to delist a search query relating to an individual’s name and also that relevant search results would be delisted globally (ie for all country versions of its search engine) in respect to that individual.

The name of the individual had appeared in the context of a newspaper article where it was revealed that he had been reported to the police by several other individuals for committing fraud in relation to a property investment.

Google appealed the decision to the Stockholm Administrative Court, also seeking a review of the scale of the delisting order issued.

The Stockholm Administrative Court held this week that Google should de-index that specific search query for searches made from Sweden, and that the Swedish Data Protection Authority cannot request Google to de-index that result in respect of countries other than Sweden.

There were several issues discussed in the judgment. For the sake of this post, the discussion is limited to aspects relating to EU law, in particular the Google Spain judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19-IPrf5nzNE-h9YTTqCCcn4zpEhfpwEQ/view