Ecommerce Europe concerned about a more rigid right to be forgotten

Kroes has argued its statement with the fact that the European Court of Justice ruling on the “right to be forgotten” is not enough. Ecommerce Europe agrees that clarifications are needed, but stresses that the approach on it should remain flexible, so as not pose too heavy administrative burdens for web shops, and especially SMEs.

A flexible approach was also agreed upon by the 28 European Justice Ministers in their last meeting. The Ministers declared that search engines are only obliged to remove links with personal information about people under certain conditions. What those conditions are exactly will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis and, due to this, Ecommerce Europe has long warned policy makers for the concerns web shops have with the right to be forgotten, and therefore supports the Council’s approach.

When the right to be forgotten is decided upon a case-by-case basis, judges will be able to take into account the other obligations web shops already have. On the other hand, if policy makers would adopt a rigid approach towards the right to be forgotten, this would mean that any removal request coming from an individual should always be granted. That would happen without taking into account the particularities of the case.

Online merchants have a wide range of legal obligations to keep data on transactions, for example for taxes or consumer warranty, and it would be impossible for them to erase all consumer data at any time.

The Italian Presidency of the Council seems confident to reach an agreement on the full text during the meeting of 14 December 2014. After that, the Council will have to enter in trialogue negotiations with the European Parliament and the Commission, to bring the three legislative proposals together in a regulation.