German courts had a few opportunities to decide on cease and
desist claims against search engines with the aim to block certain
search results in connection with the claimant's name, a
situation often associated with the right to be forgotten –
or RTBF – as established by the ECJ. Delicate decisions need
to be taken.
Most recently, the Regional Court of Frankfurt used Article 17
(1) GDPR as the legal bases for this (decisions dated 28 Feb 2019,
case ref 2-03 O 315/17). It held that where a data subject may in
certain in cases request deletion this implies that cease and
desist from processing in the future can be claimed as well. The
court arrived at this interpretation by autonomously construing
European law.
