"They don't make it exactly easy, do they?"The steps seem clear to me. I can't think of another way they could do this. They're asking for all the information needed to make an initial assesment. The onus is on the submitter to make the claim and provide the evidence.
I can imagine in most cases, Google will require follow-up documents or further evdence to prove that you are no longer associated with event X, Y or Z. All of this will make the process even lengthier.
What I'd like to know is if this ruling applies only to Google or to other search engines too? The action was bought againt Google, but the European Court of Justice uses the generic wording "operator of a search engine" in it's press relase about the ruling. Presumably this means any local or international search engine that operates with offices in that country must also provide a link removal assesment service. Does the search engine have to remove results from their entire index or just the results served to users of a particular country (where the claim was filed)? And are search engines under any obligation to publish the results of successful requests to remove links?
This ruling feels unworkable and throws up so many complications.