Two Obscure E.U. Verdicts Pose Threat To Silicon Valley

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Two recent court verdicts in Europe, barely covered by American media, could have serious – if not outright scary – consequences for Americans and American businesses.

Here is what you need to know:

As I wrote about last year, the European Court of Justice has given Europeans the “Right To Be Forgotten” – that is the right for people to have themselves removed from online search results that are “inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.”

In September of 2014, French attorney Dan Shefet (with whom I spoke while writing this article) won a judgement against Google France for the actions of Google, Inc. – the firm’s US-based parent. Shefet claimed that: 1. After he received a court order that Google, Inc. and Google France remove offensive references to his client covered under the “Right To Be Forgotten” from search results displayed in France, only the French subsidiary complied, but the American parent had not done so, and 2. Because Google France was “inextricably linked” to its parent – meaning that it could not operate its business without its parent – the local subsidiary was liable for the actions of its parent as set forth in the European Court of Justice’s original Right To Be Forgotten ruling. The judges of the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance agreed, and instituted a fine of 1,000 Euros per day to be paid by Google France until Google, Inc. would comply with the original court order. Interestingly, the wording of their judgement did not seem to limit the scope of the concept of “inextricably linked” solely to cases regarding data privacy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephsteinberg/2015/03/15/how-two-obscure-court-verdicts-in-europe-could-impact-americans-privacy-cybersecurity-and-taxes/