The Right to Be Forgotten in the General Data Protection Regulation and the aftermath of the “Google Spain” judgment (C-131/12)

• Mag. Dr. Oskar J. Gstrein

This article analyzes the consequences of the landmark judgment of the ECJ in the Google Spain (C-131/12) case establishing a right to delist information from the index of a search engine ( imprecisely referred to as a “right to be forgotten” – R2BF). It describes the basic characteristics of delisting and will go on to discussing if and how the final text of Art. 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) reflects the judgment of the court or establishes a R2BF in a different way. Subsequently, the author will elaborate whether (and if so, which) lessons there are to be learned for the regulation of the virtual space in general and take a look at the institutional implications which follow from this judgment. It will be submitted that the regulation of the virtual space can only be successful if rules or laws are sensible and as such based on fundamentally recognized principles such as human dignity, take into account all relevant positions of the stakeholders concerned and allow for further technological development.