Google Belgium SA: Insufficient fulfilment of data subjects rights

The Belgian data protection authority has fined Google Belgium SA, a subsidiary of Google, 600,000 euros. The reasons for the fine were the rejection of an application by a data subject for dereferencing outdated articles that the data subject had considered to be damaging to its reputation, and lack of transparency in Google's form for dereferencing applications. The Belgian data protection authority found that articles relating to unfounded harassment complaints could have serious consequences for the data subjects, and natural persons were therefore entitled to have articles deleted/dereferenced. This also applies to persons who hold political office, even though these offices are generally less worthy of protection due to their public status and articles relating to political persons may therefore be stored for a longer period of time. Google's rejection of the application was therefore in breach of Article 17 of the GDPR (fine for this breach: €500,000). In addition, a further €100,000 was imposed for breach of the principle of transparency, as Google's rejection of the request for deletion was not sufficiently justified

GDPR Articles: Art. 5 GDPR, Art. 6 GDPR, Art. 17 (1) a) GDPR, Art. 12 GDPR
Industry: Media, Telecoms and Broadcasting