TU and RE v Google C-460 20
In TU and RE v Google, C-460/20, the CJEU defined what a person must show when requesting de-referencing of a name-search result that contains allegedly inaccurate factual claims.
The requester must supply relevant and sufficient evidence that can reasonably be required in the circumstances. If that evidence establishes the manifest inaccuracy of all or a non-minor part of the referenced information, the search engine must grant de-referencing.
The requester does not first need a judgment against the publisher. The search engine is not required to investigate missing facts, contact the publisher, or conduct its own adversarial fact-finding. The practical result is an evidence burden: a bare denial is weak, but an official record that directly disproves a material factual premise can engage the search engine’s duty.
Minor inaccuracies do not normally justify de-referencing of an otherwise accurate article. Nor does the judgment require a search engine to reassess a final criminal conviction merely because the convicted person maintains innocence. It is most useful for separable factual claims about employment, duties, public role, present status, or other material circumstances.
The judgment also requires a separate balance for photographs displayed as thumbnails in a name-based image search. The search engine must assess the photograph’s own informative value, including text displayed directly beside it, rather than treating publication inside an article as automatically decisive. The CJEU described thumbnail display as a particularly significant interference with privacy and control over a person’s image.
This accuracy and image-search analysis complements the criminal-information test in GC and Others C-136 17.