An EU court has ruled Google must delete false search results.

People in Europe can have Google delete search results about them if they prove the information is “manifestly inaccurate”, the EU's top court has ruled.

The ruling comes after a case launched by two investment managers who had requested Google ‘de-reference’ results of a search made on the basis of their names.

The top links included articles criticising the group’s investment model, which allegedly contained inaccurate claims.

Google argued it was unaware whether the information contained in the articles was accurate or not.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has now opened the door to the investment managers being able to successfully trigger the so-called “right to be forgotten” under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.

“The right to freedom of expression and information cannot be taken into account where, at the very least, a part - which is not of minor importance - of the information found in the referenced content proves to be inaccurate,” the court said in a press release accompanying the ruling.

People who want to remove inaccurate search results must provide sufficient proof that what is said about them is false, but “only evidence that can reasonably be required of [them] to try to find,” the court said.

“We welcome the decision, and we will now study the text of the CJEU’s decision,” a spokesperson for Google said in a statement to reporters. 

“The links and thumbnails in question are not available via the web search and image search anymore; the content at issue has been offline for a long time.”

More details are accessible here.