The Constitutional Court upholds the right to be forgotten in Internet search engines

The sentence recalls its doctrine on the recognition of the right to be forgotten and sets limits among which the factor of the public importance of the news and its antiquity stand out.

The Constitutional Court has endorsed the right to be forgotten in Internet search engines by declaring unconstitutional resolutions that violated the right to protection of personal data of a person against information disseminated on the network.

The plenary session of the court of guarantees has approved a sentence by majority - with the dissenting individual vote of the magistrates Juan Antonio Xiol and María Luisa Balaguer - in which it estimates the appeal of a merchant, whose identity data is suppressed to give effect to the decision that is adopted, against the sentence of the Supreme that confirmed in turn another of the National High Court.

These sentences in turn annulled the resolution of the Spanish Agency for Data Protection that had protected the appellant in his request to suppress certain data that were disqualifying for his work, published by third parties in the US, and which were accessed in Spain through through Google.

The sentence approved by the plenary recalls above all its doctrine on the recognition of the right to be forgotten and sets limits among which the factor of the public importance of the news and its antiquity stand out.

As well as the responsibility of Internet search engines that make data and information available to Internet users on web pages, such entities having to respect the right to suppress these links, when they violate the regulations of the European Union and Spanish in The matter.

In this regard, it highlights that in this case the appellant's fundamental right has been violated, since the comments disqualifying his professional activity did not meet the parameters of public interest.

Nor, he continues, did they have sufficiently current data to justify maintaining the links to access it, despite which the sentences denied the appellant that his right to be forgotten prevailed.