Liability of search engine operator for autocomplete suggestions that infringe rights of privacy - "Autocomplete" function

Abstract

A search engine operator has to take adequate precautions in order to prevent the so-called predictions generated by autocomplete function of the search engine from infringing others' rights of privacy. Failure by the search engine operator to take such precautions despite knowledge of the situation will result in liability for damages. ... [1] Plaintiff No 1, a stock corporation that sells food supplements and cosmetics on the internet via a network marketing system, and plaintiff No 2, its founder and chairman of the board, sued the defendant, which has its registered office in the USA and operates an internet search engine under the internet address “www.google.de”, for injunctive relief and monetary compensation. By entering search terms into the search engine of the defendant, users can access a hit list of contents that were placed on the internet by third parties. In April 2009 the defendant integrated an autocomplete function into its search engine so that various “predictions” are automatically displayed to the internet users in the form of combinations of terms in a separate window that opens while the search terms are typed, varying on the basis of the sequence of letters typed. The predictions displayed within the context of the autocomplete function are determined on the basis of an algorithm which, among other things, takes the number of queries typed by other users into account.