The Unexpected Consequences of the EU Right to Be Forgotten: Internet Search Engines As Fundamental Rights Adjudicators

Abstract

The right to be forgotten as established in the CJEU’s decision in Google Spain is the first online data privacy right recognized in the EU legal order. This contribution explores two currently underdeveloped in the literature aspects of the right to be forgotten: its unexpected consequences on search engines and the difficulties of its implementation in practice by the latter. It argues that the horizontal application of EU privacy rights on private parties, such as internet search engines - as undertaken by the CJEU - is fraught with conceptual gaps, dilemmas and uncertainties that create confusions about the enforceability of the right to be forgotten and the role of search engines. In this respect, it puts forward a comprehensive legal framework for the implementation of this right, which aims to ensure a legally certain and proportionate balance of the competing interests online in the light of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Keywords: Data protection, Personal data, Data controller, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Right to be forgotten