Canada: Federal Court rules that search engines fall within scope of Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)

On 8 July 2021, in decision 2021 FC 723, the Federal Court of Canada ruled on a case brought at the request of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). The Court held that the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) applies to search engine results and rejected Google’s argument that its search service does not constitute a commercial activity. The Court also found that Google cannot rely on PIPEDA’s journalism exception, since it does not control the content of the search results and is therefore not a publisher. Following this ruling, the matter was returned to the OPC to determine whether Google had in fact violated PIPEDA.