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The widespread availability of Internet raises increasingly complex issues in terms of information regulation. In fact, the amount of circulating information and the possibilities to track them is raising growing concerns, related both to business as well as personal freedoms, that were not even imaginable in the early Nineties, when the first legal provisions related to the protection of personal data were adopted by the European Union (hereinafter EU).  

In May 2014, by “leveraging” a case that occurred within one of the EU Member States (namely, Spain, the main parties being a Spanish citizen, a Spanish media group, and the Google group), the EU Court of Justice (“EUCJ”) wrote a new page on the protection of the “digital rights” of individuals when operating in the internet, by delivering a decision in contrast with a concept of net neutrality behind which the web companies can freely operate.1 Purpose of this case comment is to read together, and eventually understand, the main features of a sea-changing EU jurisprudence. In order to do this, we will try, first, to introduce the relevant EU legal framework, moving then to a more detailed analysis of the case law; some conclusive (as well as critical) remarks will also be provided. 

Eclipsing the Web