GC and Others C-136 17
In GC and Others v CNIL, C-136/17, the CJEU addressed name-search results leading to sensitive information and criminal proceedings. It treated the search engine’s indexing, ordering, and display as processing that is separate from and additional to the source publisher’s processing.
The Court emphasized that a name search can give users a structured overview of one person and make a page available to people who otherwise would not have found it. The search-engine operator is therefore a controller for that additional dissemination.
For links involving GDPR Article 10 criminal information, the operator must assess whether continued inclusion in results for the person’s name is strictly necessary to protect users’ freedom of information. The assessment includes the offence’s nature and seriousness, the proceeding and outcome, time elapsed, the person’s public role and past conduct, current public interest, the content and form of the publication, and the consequences for the person.
The source page’s journalistic character is relevant but does not automatically determine the search engine’s answer. The case concerns de-referencing: removing the result for name queries does not delete or alter the underlying publication.
Conseil d’Etat 401258 records the national outcome for the applicant whose conviction concerned sexual touching of minors. The French court found continued name indexing not strictly necessary despite an accurate press source, a seven-year prison sentence, and an active ten-year supervision measure.