The Council of State dedicated Friday the victory of Google on the CNIL over the right to be forgotten by Internet users, recognizing that it did not apply outside Europe as wanted by the French guardian of privacy .
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The high administrative court canceled a decision of the Cnil in March 2016, which condemned Google to a fine of 100,000 euros for having limited the " right to be forgotten " to only European versions of the search engine.
The decision is not a surprise, since the European Court of Justice, rightly seized by the Council of State in the context of this case, had decided last September that the right to be forgotten by European Internet users does not could apply only in Europe, and not outside its borders.
Consecrated in 2014 by European justice, the right to be forgotten allows each European to obtain, under conditions, the removal of links which appear in the results of a search engine after a query concerning his name.
The American group, supported by several rights organizations, replied that respecting the “ right to be forgotten ” beyond the borders of the EU would have posed risks for freedom of expression, in particular in certain authoritarian countries. Microsoft and the Wikimedia foundation, which hosts Wikipedia, had joined Google in the proceedings. Google was also supported by press freedom NGOs Reporters committee for freedom of the press (United States) and Article 19 (United Kingdom).
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Since 2014 and the entry into force of the European right to be forgotten, Google received requests to delete referencing for 3.5 million web pages, which were satisfied for 46% of them.
