Background
The entrepreneur became the target of an unprecedented and widespread online discrediting campaign orchestrated by commercial competitors. Defamatory narratives were amplified through a network of anonymous blog posts published on platforms such as Telegra.ph and Ghost, and then replicated across specially created landing pages hosted in abuse-resistant jurisdictions, which made it difficult to remove the publications even on the basis of valid legal claims.
Legal issues
A Spanish entrepreneur approached DRC to protect his business reputation after outdated and misleading online materials began to dominate search results for his name. The matter required a cross-border strategy under EU data protection law, relying on the right to be forgotten under Article 17 GDPR, and the standards developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in González/Costeja case.
Our role
- Assessed the factual record and mapped all URLs and search queries driving reputational harm.
- Built a legal position under GDPR (Article 17 and related principles: accuracy, relevance, proportionality, public interest).
- Prepared and filed delisting requests to search engines, supported by structured evidence and argumentation.
- Coordinated parallel communications with publishers/website operators where takedown or correction was feasible.
- Developed a risk-managed communications approach to avoid amplifying harmful content.
Key challenges
- Multi-jurisdiction enforcement reality: publishers and hosting infrastructure outside the client’s home jurisdiction, with limited leverage for direct removal.
- Balancing test under EU practice: demonstrating that the information was inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant, or excessive, while addressing potential public interest objections.
- Scalability: multiple sources mirroring the same narrative across sites and reposts, requiring prioritisation and a repeatable workflow.
- Streisand effect risk: achieving results discreetly, without triggering renewed attention to the content.
Outcome
- Search visibility of the disputed materials was substantially reduced through url delisting from the search engine, restoring the client’s ability to conduct business without reputational distortion from legacy or misleading links.
- A documented compliance package was delivered for ongoing monitoring and rapid response to re-uploads.
