Google LLC – Court Ruling (Finland, 2024)

Pursuant to Article 17(1) GDPR, the data subject had requested Google LLC (the controller) to remove several search result links from Google Search that led to articles published by various news media in 2010, the subject of which was an arrest warrant against the data subject. After the controller refused to remove the links, the Finnish DPA had ordered the controller to comply with the data subject's request. The Administrative Court of Helsinki had overturned the DPA's decision following an appeal by the controller. The DPA then appealed the Administrative Court's decision to the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland (the Court) requesting that the Administrative Court's decision be overturned and that the DPA's original decision be enforced. The DPA stated that the search result links concerned news articles about an arrest warrant, the social significance of which was mainly fleeting compared to crime news. Accordingly, the DPA considered that the links concerned outdated information that had since lost its relevance. The DPA also emphasised that the vast majority of the news articles also contained a photograph of the data subject and that the date indicated in the articles did not guarantee that the reader understood the information as describing past events. The Court found that the news articles to which the search result links led were still available on the news websites that had published them. Consequently, the removal of such links could have a relatively limited impact on the public's access to information. The Court noted that the information on the arrest warrant, which was almost ten years old and no longer valid, had expired. Therefore, the information no longer had much social relevance, even though it was indirectly related to the punishment and the crime of which the data subject had been convicted. The Court stated that the information contained in the news articles about the nature of the offence and the length of the sentence could not b