30.1.2023

Official Journal of the European Union

C 35/4

(Case C-460/20)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data - Directive 95/46/EC - Article 12(b) - Point (a) of the first paragraph of Article 14 - Regulation (EU) 2016/679 - Article 17(3)(a) - Operator of an internet search engine - Research carried out on the basis of a person’s name - Displaying a link to articles containing allegedly inaccurate information in the list of search results - Displaying, in the form of thumbnails, photographs illustrating those articles in the list of results of an image search - Request for de-referencing made to the operator of the search engine - Weighing-up of fundamental rights - Articles 7, 8, 11 and 16 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union - Obligations and responsibilities of the operator of the search engine in respect of processing a request for de-referencing - Burden of proof on the person requesting de-referencing)

(2023/C 35/04)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: TU, RE

Defendant: Google LLC

Operative part of the judgment

1.Article 17(3)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) must be interpreted as meaning that:

within the context of the weighing-up exercise which is to be undertaken between the rights referred to in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, on the one hand, and those referred to in Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, on the other hand, for the purposes of examining a request for de-referencing made to the operator of a search engine seeking the removal of a link to content containing claims which the person who submitted the request regards as inaccurate from the list of search results, that de-referencing is not subject to the condition that the question of the accuracy of the referenced content has been resolved, at least provisionally, in an action brought by that person against the content provider.

2.Article 12(b) and point (a) of the first paragraph of Article 14 of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, as well as Article 17(3)(a) of Regulation 2016/679 must be interpreted as meaning that

in the context of the weighing-up exercise which is to be undertaken between the rights referred to in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, on the one hand, and those referred to in Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, on the other hand, for the purposes of examining a request for de-referencing made to the operator of a search engine seeking the removal from the results of an image search carried out on the basis of the name of a natural person of photographs displayed in the form of thumbnails representing that person, account must be taken of the informative value of those photographs regardless of the context of their publication on the internet page from which they are taken, but taking into consideration any text element which accompanies directly the display of those photographs in the search results and which is capable of casting light on the informative value of those photographs.

(1) OJ C 443, 21.12.2020.