Freedom of Expression and ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Cases in the Netherlands after Google Spain

Abstract

Since the Google Spain judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europeans have, under certain conditions, the right to have search results for their name delisted. This paper examines how the Google Spain judgment has been applied in the Netherlands. Since the Google Spain judgment, Dutch courts have decided on two cases regarding delisting requests. In both cases, the Dutch courts considered freedom of expression aspects of delisting more thoroughly than the Court of Justice. However, the effect of the Google Spain judgment on freedom of expression is difficult to assess, as search engine operators decide about most delisting requests without disclosing much about their decisions.

Data protection law, european court of justice, Freedom of expression, google spain, Grondrechten, Privacy, right to be delisted, right to be forgotten, search engines, the netherlands, Vrijheid van meningsuiting

Bibtex

Article{nokey, title = {Freedom of Expression and ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Cases in the Netherlands after Google Spain}, author = {Zuiderveen Borgesius, F.}, url = {http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2652171}, year = {0917}, date = {2015-09-17}, journal = {European Data Protection Law Review}, number = {2}, abstract = {Since the Google Spain judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europeans have, under certain conditions, the right to have search results for their name delisted. This paper examines how the Google Spain judgment has been applied in the Netherlands. Since the Google Spain judgment, Dutch courts have decided on two cases regarding delisting requests. In both cases, the Dutch courts considered freedom of expression aspects of delisting more thoroughly than the Court of Justice. However, the effect of the Google Spain judgment on freedom of expression is difficult to assess, as search engine operators decide about most delisting requests without disclosing much about their decisions.}, keywords = {Data protection law, european court of justice, Freedom of expression, google spain, Grondrechten, Privacy, right to be delisted, right to be forgotten, search engines, the netherlands, Vrijheid van meningsuiting}, }