Public Prosecutor's Office of the Netherlands – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2019)

SIN-NL is a foundation that works to improve the position of victims of medical errors or their survivors and the patient safety and quality of healthcare. SIN-NL publishes online a blacklist of doctors and a blacklist of judges, which contain names of doctors, judges and other persons and organisations within the healthcare sector who according to SIN-NL act unlawfully. The plaintiff was a public prosecutor, that acted in cases of medical malpractice. The plaintiff's name and photo were included in an article in the list of the doctors and specific accusations against here were made. The name of the plaintiff's name and job were also mentioned there. The Public Prosecutor's Office claimed that the inclusion of the names and the photo violated the GDPR and the plaintiff's portrait right, hence they should be removed. The Court had to balance the interests of the opposing parties. The Court found that the allegations against the plaintiff were inaccurate. Moreover, the photo was published without the plaintiff's consent and thus it violated her portrait right. The paintiff also saw a violation of Articles 33, 35 and 36 of the GDPR, which the defendant has not contested. The Court found that the publication of the blacklists violated Dutch law and ordered the removal of the article at stake. It also ordered the defendants to submit a request for removal to Google.