CJEU: Search engines to dereference allegedly inaccurate content

At the request of the German Federal Court of Justice, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held that search engine operators shall dereference content that the user shows to be manifestly inaccurate, in the exercise of their right to be forgotten. In the case at hand, two managers of a group of investment companies filed a request with Google asking for dereference of results of searches made with their names that reveal articles containing inaccurate claims about the group. Also, they requested the removal of their photos from the list of results of an image search made on the basis of their names. The burden of proof is on requesting users to provide evidence capable of establishing the inaccuracy of the information. Such evidence does not need to stem from a judicial decision proving the inaccuracy. In regard to the display of photos, the CJEU stated that the search engine operators must conduct a separate balancing of competing rights and that the informative value of photos should be taken into account without taking into consideration the context of their publication on the internet page from which they are taken.