The group of experts which were asked by Google to investigate and advise on the correct approach to requests for delisting has now reported. The report (44pp pdf) can be accessed here.
Readers will recall that, in the wake of the CJEU decision in Google Spain/Costeja, Google set up this Advisory Council, with the stated aim of gathering input from Europeans and reporting back. It is worth emphasising that the report has no legal standing at all. Whether it informs Google’s reaction to requests for delisting remains to be seen.
Highlights from an initial scan of the report include an insistence on referring to the right to be delisted rather than a right to be forgotten, that the harm to the data subject is put forward as relevant to the balancing exercise, the unsurprising suggestion that the right should not be used as a form of censorship and the group’s perception that the ruling should be seen as part of an ‘ongoing dialog’ between the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
