‘The right to be forgotten’: Cleary client Google dealt a blow by ECJ’s privacy ruling

Decision contradicts EU advocate general’s previous non-binding guidance.

After years of attempts by Brussels to tighten up Europe’s data privacy rules in the face of US lobbying, in May the European Court of Justice (ECJ) achieved that effect by backing a ‘right to be forgotten’ against Google, in a blow for the search engine and advisers Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

The court in Luxembourg found that in certain circumstances individuals can request that operators remove the links that appear during searches of their name, meaning Google will now need to set up a technical solution to a potential minefield of requests.