The Home Affairs, Health and Education EU Sub-Committee finds that a recent judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is wrong in principle, and the assumption of the Presidency that the ‘right to be forgotten’ exists has created an unworkable and unreasonable situation. The Court’s interpretation of Article 12 of the 1995 Directive - drafted three years before Google was founded - has resulted in the ruling that search engine’s European sites must process the more than 70,000 data removal requests that it has received since its webform went live on 30 May. Having consulted data protection experts, the Information Commissioner, Google and government, the Committee applauds the UK Government’s stance on the issue, and agrees that it must continue to fight to ensure that the updated Regulation no longer includes any provision on the lines of the Commission’s ‘right to be forgotten’ or the European Parliament’s ‘right to erasure’. Neither the 1995 Directive, nor the CJEU’s interpretation of it reflects the incredible advancement in technology over 20 years since the Directive was drafted. The judgment is unworkable for two main reasons. Firstly, it does not take into account the effect the ruling will have on smaller search engines which, unlike Google, are unlikely to have the resources to process the thousands of removal requests they are likely to receive. Secondly, it is wrong in principle to leave search engines themselves the task of deciding whether to delete information or not, based on vague, ambiguous and unhelpful criteria.