Clifford Chance

Territorial Application of the 'Right To Be Forgotten'

1 October 2019

This briefing highlights the implications of the recent judgement rendered by the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") concerning the territorial application of the obligation of search engine operators to carry out the de-referencing of personal data.

The French Council of State requested the CJEU to establish whether the obligation of search engine operators to carry out the de-referencing should be applied on all versions of its search engines or only on the versions of the search engines corresponding to EU all Member States or of the Member State of residence of the person benefiting from the de-referencing.

On 24 September 2019, the CJEU held in the case of Google LLC (successor to Google Inc.) v Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes that search engine operators are required to carry out the de-referencing on the versions corresponding to all the Member States. Additionally, search engine operators are required to put in place measures deterring internet users from gaining access, from one of the Member States, to the links which appear on versions of the search engine outside the EU.

Download PDF