Abstract:

The right to be forgotten was first granted to citizens of the European Union by the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and then grounded by means of an EU regulation - a universal act that does not need to be implemented and is directly in force in the Member States.
The aim of the paper is to show the evolution of the right to be forgotten throughout the years. Outlining the content of this right in 2014 was helpful in this respect, when the Court of Justice expressed its opinion on it. So was comparing it with the content of this right in a 2016 regulation. The analysis is supplemented by a discussion on the most important theses of a 2019 judgement of the Court of Justice which still modifies the final shape of the right to be forgotten. Therefore, the method of interpretation of applicable law is the dominant method employed in this study.
As a result, it became possible to specify the full content of the right to be forgotten, the most frequent practical problems that occur when enforcing this right and specific obligations imposed on data controllers.

The analysis allows a demonstration of the influence of EU regulations on how courts in Member States adjudicate currently in the cases of protection of the right to privacy. Moreover, an entirely new impact of the right to be forgotten in the aspect of creating one’s own identity has been pointed out.