According to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, Google must examine deletion requests.
(dpa) According to an expert from the European Court of Justice, search engines such as Google are obliged to check requests for the deletion of links from their result lists because of allegedly incorrect information. At the same time, those affected would have to provide initial evidence that the information was incorrect, Advocate General Giovanni Pitruzzella found on Thursday in Luxembourg (Case C-460/20).
Targeted negative reports launched
The background is a case before the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, in which a couple from the financial services industry felt that an American website had discredited them. The company behind this site is in turn accused of launching targeted negative reports in order to later blackmail those affected. Google had refused to remove the links to the articles. One cannot judge whether there is any truth to the allegations.
A second point concerns the thumbnails that appear next to the links in the hit list. The BGH referred the matter to the ECJ.
With a view to such cases, Advocate General Pitruzzella now emphasized that a search engine operator must examine the applications of those affected “within its concrete possibilities”. If possible, he must also contact the publisher of the website.
Judgment expected in the coming months
Regarding the second question, Pitruzzella clarified that the same rules apply to name-based image searches as to web searches. Only the information value of the photos should be taken into account – and not the content in which the photos are embedded on the website.
The opinion of the Advocate General is not binding for the ECJ judges. A verdict is likely to come in the coming months.