French philosopher Paul Ricoeur wrote “To be forgotten is to die twice”. However, in recent days the Court of Justice of the EU has taken steps towards recognising a “right to be forgotten”, for EU citizens.

The case in question is Google Spain and Google v AEPD and Gonzalez.

It resulted from a complaint by a Spanish citizen, Mario Costeja González, in relation to the appearance, in Google search results for his name, of newspaper reports regarding his old unpaid debts. The Spanish data protection authority upheld his complaint against Google – although not his separate complaint against the newspaper.

Google appealed this decision, with the matter coming before the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice, the highest and most authoritative interpreter of EU law.

The court ruled that Google must provide users, in certain instances, with a right to delete links about themselves including, in some cases, public records. The court stated that even where personal information about individuals was accurate and had been lawfully published initially, the continued publication of that information may breach EU data protection law in circumstances where, with the elapse of time, the initial publication was no longer relevant.

The court said that the right of a person to insist that information no longer be linked to searches of his name was not absolute and must be balanced against the rights of internet users.

However, the court indicated the privacy rights of the person whose details were published would “as a general rule” take priority over the rights of other internet users, unless the person played a particular role in public life.

The decision has been criticised by some on the basis that it curtails freedom of expression and internet freedom, as well as raising censorship concerns. This is because it will enable people to prevent truthful facts about them from appearing on the internet. The decision will put search engines in the extremely onerous position of having to take a view on how to comply with potentially millions of individual requests.

It will also place national data protection authorities, such as Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, in a similarly difficult position.

This is because individuals will be able to complain to a national data protection authority if they are unhappy with a search engine’s response to a “right to be forgotten” request. The authority, in turn, will need to consider, on a case by case basis, whether the public’s interest in access to information exceeds the individual’s privacy rights. Clearly, this is not a straightforward decision.

The EU has spent the last two years debating whether and on what terms a right to be forgotten should be included in a new general data protection regulation (which continues to be debated). Ironically, it seems that such a right already exists under the current regime.

This article by Robert McDonagh and Francis Kieran BL, committee members of the Irish Society for European Law, was published in the Irish Times on 26 May 2014.

© 2014 irishtimes.com  – Click here to view this article on the Irish Times website

The ISEL is delighted to announce that the winner of the Competition Law Essay Prize 2013, an annual competition run by the ISEL’s Competition Law Forum:-

Mr. Nicholas Liddane

The winning work is entitled:-

“Addressing the Absence of a Provision in the Competition 2002 Act Analogous to Article 106(2) TFEU”

The winning work will be published on the Society’s website and in a future issue of the Irish Journal of European Law.

The Prize will be awarded to Mr. Liddane at the forthcoming Competition Law Forum event, Annual Review of Important Competition Law Cases and Developments in the EU and Ireland, at which Professor Richard Whish and Mr Declan Walsh will speak.

On behalf of the Society, we would like to thank Mr. Justice Aindrias Ó Caoimh (Court of Justice of the European Union), Mr. Noel Travers B.L. and Dr. Stanley Wong (Stanley Wong Global) for acting as the Jury for the 2013 Competition and for kindly devoting their time to this initiative.

Dated 15th March 2013

Professor Joseph Weiler will be visiting the Law School, Trinity College, Dublin on Tuesday 18 February 2014.  He will be delivering a public lecture at 5pm in the Examination Hall at Trinity College.  The topic is Van Gend en Loos – 50 Years On, a critical retrospective.  Members of the ISEL are welcome to attend.

UCD Sutherland School of Law in association with the Royal Irish Academy – Public Lecture 5th December 2013

For the first time, as part of the UCD Sutherland School of Law’s 16th Annual Irish European Law Forum, a public lecture has been organised in association with the Royal Irish Academy on the evening before the conference – at 5.30pm on Thursday 5th December 2013.  The lecture is entitled ‘Sovereignty, the Nation-State, and Integration History’ delivered by Peter L. Lindseth, Olimpiad S. Ioffe Professor of International and Comparative Law and Director, International Programs, UConn School of Law and chaired by The Hon. Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, Supreme Court, Ireland.

Please note we have waived the fee for the public lecture and you can register here http://www.ucd.ie/law/events/title,190806,en.html.

The Irish European Law Forum is an annual one day conference run by the UCD School of Law on a different theme each year. As part of the Department of the Taoiseach’s Communicating Europe Initiative, the Forum will be run by the UCD Constitutional Studies Group to mark the 40th anniversary of accession of Ireland to the EU with a view to exploring the nature of sovereignty as a key concept shared between Constitutional, EU and Public International Law as well as the related disciplines of politics and international relations.

For full details on the conference and to book please click here http://www.ucd.ie/law/events/title,189231,en.html.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Competition Law Forum Essay Prize 2012 is:-

Mr. Patrick O’Sullivan

The winning work is entitled:-

“Services of a General Economic Interest; from Article 106(2) TFEU to Altmark and future developments”

The winning work will be published on the Society’s website and in the forthcoming issue of the Irish Journal of European Law.

The Prize will be awarded to Mr. O’Sullivan at a forthcoming Competition Law Forum event.

The Jury would also like to give honourable mention to the following other works that were submitted to the 2012 Competition:-

• “The Limited Scope of Hong Kong Competition Legislation on Public Entities: A Critical Review on Government’s Justification” by Chi Hang Chiang; and
• “The Relationship between Competition Law and Patent Law: A Troubling Union” by Cormac Reynolds.

On behalf of the Society, we would like to thank Mr. Justice Aindrias Ó Caoimh (Court of Justice of the European Union), Mr. Noel Travers B.L. and Dr. Stanley Wong (Stanley Wong Global) for acting as the Jury for the 2012 Competition and for kindly devoting their time to this initiative.

Dated 15th March 2013.
Richard Ryan (Chair)
Claire Waterson
Maureen O’Neill

Committee for the Competition Law Forum