German federal court to give ruling on 'right to be forgotten'

The concerned case involves a couple from the financial services industry who believe they were discredited on the internet. The plaintiffs want several critical articles about their investment model to no longer appear as hits when people search for their names on Google.

The judges in Germany are likely to be guided by a December ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), according to which search engine operator Google is not obliged to actively search for such entries.

According to the ECJ ruling, it is up to the person concerned to prove that the information about them is incorrect. If they succeed, Google must remove the links to the offending content. The sixth civil senate at the BGH must now apply these requirements to the specific case.

A US website had published the texts. The operator of the website was accused of deliberately publishing negative reports to blackmail the plaintiffs.

Google did not remove the links to the articles, saying that it could not judge whether there was any truth in the accusations.

Google is by far the most popular search engine in use, with more than 85 per cent of online searches taking place on the site.