Request delisting under your right to be forgotten

What the right to be forgotten is

On 13 May 2014, in the case *Google Spain* (C-131/12), the Court of Justice of the EU held that a search engine is responsible for the results it shows. A person can ask it to stop showing results for their name that are inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant (CURIA). The case began with a Spanish man and an old auction notice. Today the rights behind it are in the GDPR: erasure (art. 17) and objection (art. 21).

Delisting is not deletion. The page stays on the website that published it, and it can still be found by other searches. What changes is the search for your name, which is usually what employers, landlords, clients and neighbours type. To remove the page at the source, see GDPR erasure requests. French speakers can read about the same service in French on netclearer.fr.

Your situation

Delisting fits different stories, and each one has its own arguments. Choose the closest one.

Want to remove results linked to your name? Follow our guide to removing your name from Google Search.

How often Google says yes, country by country

Google has received 2,185,824 delisting requests since May 2014 and 309,986 in the 12 months to 27 September 2026. These are Google’s own figures for each country since 2014, from its Transparency Report. They are not our success rate.

About half of all requested URLs end up delisted. The other half stay, mostly because Google finds a public interest: a recent case, a public role, a professional activity.

What Google needs, and what we add

Google’s EU privacy form is open to residents of the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the UK; residence counts, not nationality. It asks for an ID document, each URL, the searches that show it, and a short explanation (Google). Anyone can fill it in for free, and an authorised representative may file it for you.

1. Check: we search your name, list the results and tell you which ones have a fair case and which do not.
2. Mandate and ID: you sign a mandate and send a copy of your ID. Google sees that the request comes from you.
3. Arguments: we explain, per URL, why the result is outdated, inaccurate or excessive, with dates and documents. We cite the EU rulings that fit, such as C-136/17 for criminal cases or C-460/20 for false content.
4. Filing and follow-up: we file the same day you order, answer Google’s questions and tell you the decision.
5. After a refusal: we can ask the website to correct or erase the page, file again with new facts, or prepare a complaint to your data protection authority, which you sign and send yourself.

Law and reputation firms filed 21% of all requests in Google’s 2018 figures (Search Engine Land). Google reads mass-produced requests with care. We file one sober, documented request per case. In Italy and Portugal, where advice on the law is reserved to lawyers, we fill in the forms and write to website owners only; you file any complaint to the authority yourself, with our case file. NetClearer is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

Bing and other search engines

Bing has a share worth handling in Portugal (10.2%), Denmark (9.7%), Belgium (8.6%), Sweden (8.5%) and Poland (7.4%) (StatCounter). We can file the same request with Bing as an extra link. Yandex is visible in Estonia and Latvia, but we do not offer requests there.

Limits

• Google decides, case by case, and its review time is its own. We do not promise a result or a date.
• Results about your public role, your current business or a recent court case are often kept.
• Delisting does not remove the page from the website, from archives or from other search terms.
• We do not represent you before a data protection authority or a court. We prepare the complaint; you sign and send it. For a court order, consult a lawyer in your country.

Price

€29 incl. VAT per link. A pack of 3 links costs €69 incl. VAT (€23 per link) and a pack of 10 costs €199 incl. VAT. UK agencies serving Ireland charge from £450 plus VAT per request. No refund once your request has been filed. You have 14 days to withdraw before that; see the pricing page.