EU Advisor tells France to forget about global 'right to be forgotten'

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice has given his opinion on the ‘right to be forgotten’ conflict between France and Google, and its good news for the ‘do no evilers’.

Advocate General, Maciej Szpunar, has been pondering the implications of the ‘right to be forgotten’ saga for some months now, and the opinion is relatively simple; France does not have the right to impose its own considerations on a company which operates outside its jurisdiction.

The French regulator can force Google to de-list search results on the grounds of privacy in France, and generally across the EU, though it does not have the authority to impose itself on the companies worldwide footprint. As the Advocate General notes, the repercussions of such a ruling would have too much potential to cause damage in various other scenarios.

The case is somewhat of a tricky one, as it does have implications in the contentious world of privacy/free speech/accountability. And while the European Court of Justice does not have to follow the opinion of the Advocate General, it generally does.

“This is a really important case pitting fundamental rights to privacy against freedom of expression,” said Richard Cumbley, Partner and Global Head of Technology at law firm Linklaters. “The case highlights the continuing conflict between national laws and the Internet which does not respect national boundaries.

“The opinion contains a clear recommendation that the right to remove search results from Google should not have global effect. There are a number of good reasons for this, including the risk other states would also try and supress search results on a global basis. This would seriously affect people’s right to access information.”

The case dates back to the early months of 2018, with the CNIL, France’s data protection watchdog, suggesting the search giant should have to enforce any ‘right to be forgotten’ rulings to all of its domains instead of just that of the home nation of the challenging regulator. Google, and various other free speech advocacy groups, have been suggesting France and the European Union are attempting to impose their own data privacy position on the rest of the world.

Looking at the ramifications, those of us who have more long-term considerations would certainly be thankful of Szpunar’s opinion. As Cumbley points out above, this case could be used as evidence by other nations to supress free speech or opinions which are not in-line with the political climate. Precedent is everything in the legal community, and while it hopefully does not intend to, France may be aiding more authoritarian governments in trying to impose its privacy demands on Google.

What is worth noting is that this opinion is not an official ruling from the European Court of Justice, though it does generally head in the same direction as the Advocate General.