Google Brasil Internet LTDA. vs. Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel

Civil and Consumer law. Internet. Consumer relations. Applicability of the Consumer Protection and Defense Code. Irrelevance of gratuity of service. Internet search engine. Lack of necessity to prior filtering of the searches. Non-applicability of restrictions to the results. Public content. Right to information. (Translated from the original by Felipe Busnello)

Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel is a famous television show host in Brazil, who has made a notorious career in hosting shows aimed for children, and is widely known by the moniker “raínha dos baixinhos”, which translates to “queen of the little ones”. Prior to becoming famous for her television shows, she played a part in a Brazilian film titled “Amor Estranho Amor” (Love Strange Love). The movie is about the son of a luxurious prostitute (the latter played by the plaintiff), who revisits the brothel where he has met his mother as a 12 years-old teenager, and with whom he has discovered his own sexuality. The movie was somewhat unknown to the general public until references to it and copies of it went viral on the Internet. At the time, most of the copies had the two scenes in which the character played by Xuxa molests her teenager son deleted, as a result of thorough work by her public relations agents, but some original copies still existed and were circulated on the Internet. Xuxa sued Google Brasil Internet LTDA for the removal of any results that matched her name and the term “pedophile” or any related term, but had been denied her plea in all instances of court.