Google fights 'right to be forgotten'
This case hinges around the right of an individual to be forgotten, part of the EU privacy law, with the battle here between Google and the French Data Privacy Regulator - Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL).
Google and CNIL are arguing over a surprise decision in 2014 at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, giving individuals (subject to certain conditions), the right to have references to them removed from search engine results.
The decision was not accepted by Google, but they did comply with the ruling and removed search references from its European domains like Google.fr or Google.de but not Google.com
An interesting aside here is that Google has only complied with around 45% of these requests so far. I imagine its decision making criteria will also be put under the microscope in this regard at some point in the future.
CNIL argued that Google had not fully complied with the ruling by only acting on country level domains and not the Google.com domain, issuing Google with a 100,000 euro fine in 2016 for non-compliance
Google appealed the case to France's highest court, which in turn has referred to the ECJ for an opinion. Google argues that if they lose it will only be a matter of time before any country, can impose their laws in this way.
A ruling is expected in the next few months, the implications could be far reaching.