The Paris court rendered a judgment on June 30, 2021 in which the magistrates gave priority to the right to information of a press publisher over the right to be forgotten enshrined in article 17 of the GDPR.
In this case, in 2009, a newspaper published an article on its website concerning the conviction of a former manager of the Racing Club de Paris for breach of trust and abuse of corporate assets. Ten years later, the latter gives formal notice to the publisher to delete or anonymize the article on the basis of the right to referencing and the right of opposition provided for by the GDPR.
Despite sufficient action on the part of the publisher, the plaintiff sued her before the Paris court. This weighed the balance between the right to protection of personal data and the right to information, and made the latter take precedence. Indeed, the judges considered that, with regard to the activity of press publisher, the principles of the right to be forgotten identified by the CJEU (1) and the Court of Cassation concerning search engines do not apply not in this case. The request for anonymization is also rejected on the grounds that it would be intended “to cause the public to lose all interest in the article in question, and would therefore exceed the restrictions which may be imposed on the freedom of the press. ".
In conclusion, the judges, after dismissing the plaintiff on the old nature of the decision, state that “the article does not constitute (…) a disproportionate attack on the right to respect” of the private life of the person concerned since the conviction of which he was the subject was “delivered in open court and was the subject of various press articles. »
1 – CJEU; show C-131/12 “Google Spain SL, Google Inc.” / Agencia Española de Protection de Datos, Mario Costeja González