Lexbase, Krimfup and similar sites after the EU Court ruling of 9 July 2026

Why these sites hurt so much

In Sweden, court judgments are public documents. Sites such as Lexbase and Krimfup collect them and make them searchable by name, sometimes by address. A neighbour, an employer or a new partner can find a fine from 2015 or a dismissed case in seconds. For years these sites held a utgivningsbevis (publishing certificate), which placed them under Swedish press freedom law and outside most of the GDPR.

The data protection authority IMY has opened supervisions against Lexbase, Krimfup, Upplysning and MrKoll, and complaints rose sharply after its 2024 position (IMY).

What the EU Court said on 9 July 2026

In case C-199/24 (Legal Newsdesk Sweden), the Court of Justice held that:

• a Swedish publishing certificate does not, by itself, take a service outside the GDPR;
• uploading unedited court judgments in bulk is not journalism;
• a member state cannot cut people off from complaining to a data protection authority, from judicial review or from compensation.

Criminal data enjoys extra protection under GDPR article 10: it may only be processed under official control or with a legal basis. Combined with the ruling, this gives a solid ground for erasure requests (Sejfer, IAPP). Sweden’s Supreme Court had already said in February 2025 that the GDPR can prevail.

Honest expectations

This is a new right, being tested. Lexbase now describes an “ongoing editorial assessment” of its content, and sites may still claim, case by case, that a page is journalism. IMY had not published its position after the ruling when we wrote this page. We cannot promise that any site will comply. What we can promise is a clear, well-founded request, a follow-up, and the complaint to IMY ready for you to sign if the site refuses.

How we handle it

1. You tell us which sites show your name and which cases. We check each page and the age of each judgment.
2. You sign a mandate and send ID. We file an erasure request under GDPR art. 17 and art. 10 with each site, the same day you order, citing C-199/24.
3. We point out where the conviction is already erased from the official criminal record under the Swedish rules on fixed erasure periods (gallringsregler).
4. We track the one-month deadline. If the site refuses or stays silent, we prepare a complaint to IMY for you to sign and send.
5. We ask Google to delist the pages that remain. Sweden has Google’s highest delisting rate in our countries: 75.7% of requested URLs since 2014 (Google’s own figure, Transparency Report). You may also file again with Google if an older request was refused.

Your address, age and income on Ratsit, MrKoll or Merinfo follow a different route with BankID: see Ratsit, MrKoll, Merinfo. NetClearer is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

Price

€29 incl. VAT per site or link, €69 incl. VAT for 3. Requests to Lexbase, Krimfup and Google for the same case count as three links. No refund once your request has been filed.