The French Regulator Rejected Google's Claim Against 'Right to be Forgotten'


09/21/2015

The French Commission for the Information Technology and Human Rights (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes, CNIL), the main body of the country in the field of protection of personal data of citizens, rejected on Monday a lawsuit of Google, aimed at the abolition of the "right to be forgotten" in respect of pages located in the global domains of the company, told The Guardian.



In May, the regulator demanded the search engine to use the so-called "right to be forgotten" not only in relation to domain companies located in the EU (such as, for example, google.fr), but also for the global domain google.com.

In July, Google filed a lawsuit against the decision of the president of the commission Isabella Falk-Perrot, arguing that it violates the human right to information, restrict the right to freedom of expression and "may seriously affect the internet." As the official representative of Google put it, "we do not agree with the thesis according to which the regulatory authorities in the field of the Internet of a single country can exercise jurisdiction with respect to the global world."

In a statement, the commission noted "contrary to what Google says, the solution is not about the Commission has the intention to apply French law beyond the French borders. It just shows the need to follow the European jurisdiction for non-European companies operating in Europe market. "

Rejection of the claim means that now the company will have to remove links, containing defamatory material against French nationals who have been recognized as such by a court decision from the pages of a search engine query, located on the non-European global domains. In addition, now the commission has the right to begin to apply penalties (up to 3 percent of the world's operating expenses of the company) in the case if Google refuses to obey the decision. The search engine still has the right to appeal the commission's decision to the Council of State (Conseil d'Etat), France's highest court in administrative justice.

France is considered the progenitor of the concept of "right to be forgotten". In 2010, the country adopted the Charter on the right to be forgotten (Charte du droit à l'oubli dans les site collaboratifs et les moteurs de recherche) - a set of rules governing the relations between the state and Internet companies in the field of protection of citizens' personal data. At that time, as Microsoft has signed the Charter, Facebook and Google refused to put their signatures under it.

source: theguardian.com