EU DPAs: Right to be Forgotten de-listing also applies to .com domains



The EU Data Protection Authorities say that the Court of Justice of the European Union decision of 13 May on Google in the Right to be Forgotten case should apply globally. There has been confusion over how to apply the court’s decision, as despite de-listing within the EU, the original information can be found by using other search terms, or by direct access to the source.

The DPAs’ guidelines, adopted on 25 November, contain the regulators’ common interpretation of the Court’s ruling as well as the common criteria to be used by the Data Protection Authorities when addressing complaints. The DPAs say that de-listing decisions must be implemented in such a way that they guarantee the effective and complete protection of data subjects’ rights - limiting de-listing to EU domains is not sufficient. The DPAs say that they will focus on claims where the data subject is a citizen or resident of an EU Member State.

So far, Google has applied the Court’s decision to its European websites and not Google.com. The EU Article 29 DP Working Party, which has developed the guidelines, has no enforcement powers but the DPAs' guideline on the global applicability of the Court decision nevertheless carries much weight.

See the press release.