Juzgado Nacional de Primera Instancia en lo Civil [First Instance Court], Denegri, Natalia Ruth c/Google Inc. s/derechos personalísimos

Expte. Nº 50.016/2016
Document type
Court Decision
Country

A civil judge partially admitted the claim of the model and tv host Natalia Denegri and ordered Google to "deindex" all the images and videos related to the widely known "Coppola case" for being harmful to her image and honor. Denegri got media attention in the mid-1990s for being linked to a tv scandal known as the "Coppola case". In her lawsuit against Google, she requested the right to be forgotten. The plaintiff acknowledged that she was part of an important case that had public implications. However, after twenty years, the information still continues to appear in the search results, claimed Denegri, although it "belongs to a past that she wants to forget" and "it is old, irrelevant, unnecessary and obsolete, without any journalistic pertinence".

In its answer, Google denied that any damage had been caused to Denegri's fundamental rights as a result of the company's actions. Google said that the events in which Denegri took part were of "undeniable public interest" and that "citizens have the right to know". Google also argued about the constitutional range of protection that the right to information has in Argentina.

The decision of Judge Hernán Horacio Pagés, in charge of the National Civil Court Nº 78, orders Google to "remove all links from its search engines", including Youtube platform, among the words "Natalia Denegri", "Natalia Ruth Denegri" or "Natalia Denegri Coppola case", as well as any eventual image or video obtained twenty years ago or more that exhibits scenes in which the plaintiff may have starred in or that may show verbal or physical aggression, insults, discussions, singing and/or dancing scenes, or tv reports on Denegri's private life. Such content, stated the Judge, "lack journalistic interest" and "has no cultural or information value". On the contrary, "its publication is only based on morbidity reasons" and "gained fame because of the rating culture". The judge points out that "it has not been sufficiently demonstrated in the case that the journalistic content of the written press is associated with morbidity or eccentricity, for which reason I have not found the requirements that enable the application of the right to be forgotten"

Country
Topic, claim, or defense
Defamation or Personality Rights
Document type
Court Decision
Issuing entity
Lowest Domestic Court
Type of service provider
Search Engine or Index
Issues addressed
Other
OSP obligation considered
Other
Type of law
Civil
Constitutional
General effect on immunity
Mixed/Neutral/Unclear