Resumen de Netherlands: : Court rules on right to be delisted from search engines
On 12 February 2015, the Amsterdam Court ruled on a case where the plaintiff requested that Google modify its search results based on search queries containing certain words including, but not limited to the plaintiff’s name. This is the second occasion where the Amsterdam Court has been asked to rule on this subject, popularly referred to as the “right to be forgotten” (see IRIS 2014-10/25).
The facts of the case were the following. The plaintiff, a well-known partner at the auditing company KPMG, became involved in a dispute with his contractor, who was reconstructing the plaintiff’s home. The contractor was of the opinion that the plaintiff failed to fulfil his payment obligations, after which the contractor effectuated his right of retention by changing the locks of the plaintiff’s home. The contractor and the plaintiff eventually managed to settle on an agreement. However, the dispute caught the attention of the media, resulting in search queries based on certain words, including the plaintiff’s name, using Google search, retrieving several search results leading to news articles concerning the dispute between the contractor and the plaintiff.
