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At the same time, those affected must present initial evidence that the information is incorrect, Advocate General Giovanni Pitruzzella found on Thursday in Luxembourg (Case C-460/20).
The background to this is a case before the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, in which a couple from the financial services industry felt they had been discredited by a US website. The company behind this site is in turn accused of launching targeted negative reports in order to later blackmail those affected. Google had refused to remove the links to the articles. One cannot judge whether there is any truth to the allegations.
A second point concerns the thumbnails that appear next to the links in the hit list. The BGH referred the matter to the ECJ.
With regard to such cases, Advocate General Pitruzzella now emphasized that a search engine operator must examine the applications of those affected “within the scope of its concrete possibilities”. If possible, he should also contact the publisher of the website.
Regarding the second question, Pitruzzella clarified that the same rules apply to name-based image searches as to web searches. Only the information value of the photos should be taken into account – and not the content in which the photos are embedded on the website.
The opinion of the Advocate General is not binding for the ECJ judges. A verdict is likely to come within the coming months.
Alphabet shares were temporarily up 0.39 percent in NASDAQ trading at $2,754.12.
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