Spanish Supreme Court rules against Google on right to be forgotten

The Spanish Supreme Court has issued a ruling advancing the ‘right to be forgotten’ in a case involving a Civil Guard officer and Google. The court determined that Google is responsible for an illegitimate intrusion into the individual's honor by continuing to index news reports regarding his past judicial history, despite him having received a government pardon.

The Civil Chamber of the high court noted that “a data treatment that is initially lawful, by respecting data quality requirements, can, over time, cease to be so.” Consequently, the court overturned a previous decision from the Provincial Court of Alicante that had favored the tech giant.

The ruling grants the plaintiff's request to permanently block access to the specific links and orders Google to pay a symbolic compensation of one euro.