This article analyses the ECJ's judgment of 13 May 2014 resolving a preliminary question referred by Spain's Audiencia Nacional (AN) national court on a case on the right to be forgotten. The facts giving rise to this judgment involve an individual requesting the erasure of the search results listed when his name is entered into the search engine. The Spanish Data Protection Agency accepted the request although the information was not deleted from its source (a newspaper). The ECJ ruled on various questions posed by the AN. Firstly, the court finds that EU regulations are applicable to the extent that the matter involves services aimed at EU citizens. Furthermore, the ECJ, in contrast to the Advocate General, considers that the search engine must be regarded as the data controller to the extent that its activity allows obtaining, through the list of results, a structured view of information about a person and enables making profiles of data subjects. The ECJ considers that given the seriousness of the interference, the mere economic interests of the search engine (legitimate interest) cannot justify said interference. The Luxembourg court makes a different assessment of the rights involved from that of the Advocate General. Regarding the right of erasure (when the processing breaches data protection requirements), it finds in favour of the affected person. Furthermore, it considers that such an affected data subject may also exercise their right to block information they believe harms them before the search engine (as the data controller). Although this may infringe on the public's interest in having access to information, the ECJ considers that, except in the case of public persons who may be subject to a greater amount of personal information being published about them, the interest of the affected subject must prevail. Basically, the right to data protection prevails and the search engine is given a responsibility that must be assessed in cases where this right comes into question should circumstances exist that justify erasing the search results even where the original source remains.
