German court bars Google from repeating an AI Mode answer that falsely called a doctor a convicted sex offender
In late August 2026 a colleague told a German physician, until that summer a chief physician at a hospital, that searching his name with the word for suspension in Google's AI Mode produced what read like a factual report: that he had been suspended and dismissed and had received a suspended sentence for sexual coercion. According to legal news site beck-aktuell, none of it concerned him; the AI had apparently attached facts about another former senior employee of the same hospital to his name, and the newspaper articles it linked as sources did not name him. Google said it had reviewed his complaint and would take no action, and a lawyer's warning letter also failed. On 24 September 2026 the Aachen Regional Court issued a preliminary injunction (8 O 268/26) barring Google Ireland Limited from spreading the claims through AI Mode, finding that they violated his personality rights and that Google is responsible for its AI search answers.
- AI system
- Google AI Mode
- Occurred
- Aug 2026
- Reported
- 8 October 2026
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Made a claim about the person
- Reported harm
- Reputational Harm
- Whose AI use
- Someone else’s AI use
- Setting
- Work · Justice · Privacy
- Evidence
- AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
- 5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
- People reported harmed
- 1 person
AI system as recorded: Google Search AI Mode (KI-Modus), which generated an answer about the physician when his name was searched
Reported harm
Google's AI Mode answered searches for a physician's name with a false account that he had been convicted of sexual coercion and dismissed; Google declined to remove it until a court ordered it to stop.
Outcome
OngoingAachen Regional Court (Landgericht Aachen), 8th civil chamber, decision of 24 September 2026, 8 O 268/26: a preliminary injunction issued without an oral hearing, barring Google Ireland Limited from further spreading the false claims through AI Mode. The court treated Google as responsible (Störerin) for the AI-generated answers, following a Munich I Regional Court judgment of 28 May 2026 (26 O 869/26). It is an interim decision; no main-proceedings ruling is reported. The physician was represented by the Cologne firm Höcker; Google's position in court is not reported.
What remains unknown
- The exact wording of the AI Mode answer and how many people saw it.
- Whether Google has complied, objected or appealed; the decision is an interim injunction issued without a hearing.
- Whether the false answer affected his employment or professional standing in practice; he left the chief-physician post in summer 2026 for reasons not connected in any source to the AI answer.
- When AI Mode first produced the answer: the end of August 2026 is when a colleague pointed it out, and incident_date records that month.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: supported. Google's AI Mode itself generated the statements: according to beck-aktuell's report of the decision, a search for his name with the word for suspension produced a connected account attributing a conviction for sexual coercion and a dismissal to him, apparently by linking facts about another former employee of the same hospital to his name, while the linked source articles did not name him. The Aachen Regional Court held that these AI-generated texts violated his personality rights and that Google is responsible for them. The answer was not inspected directly; it is known through the reported decision.
5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported At the end of August 2026 a colleague told the physician that searching his name with the word for suspension in Google's AI Mode produced a connected account that read like a factual report: that he had been suspended and dismissed and had received a suspended sentence for sexual coercion.
Causal attribution. The AI Mode output as described by beck-aktuell from the court decision; the output itself was not inspected.
- beck-aktuell.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
'Ende August 2026 wies ihn ein ärztlicher Kollege darauf hin, was passiert, wenn man seinen Namen zusammen mit dem Suchbegriff "Freistellung" bei Google eingibt'; 'Der KI-Modus gab eine zusammenhängende Darstellung aus, die wie ein Tatsachenbericht klang.'; 'Ein Gericht hätte ihn wegen sexueller Nötigung zu einer Bewährungsstrafe verurteilt'; 'wäre deshalb freigestellt und gekündigt worden'
Reported None of the claims concerned him: there was never a criminal complaint, proceeding or conviction against him; the AI apparently linked information about another former senior employee of the same hospital to his name, and the newspaper articles Google linked as sources did not name him.
Causal attribution. beck-aktuell's account of the case; the court found the statements attributed to him offences that concerned another person (c4).
- beck-aktuell.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
'Gegen ihn gab es nie eine Strafanzeige wegen sexueller Nötigung, kein Strafverfahren und keine Verurteilung.'; 'Die KI hatte vielmehr offenbar Informationen über einen anderen früheren leitenden Mitarbeiter derselben Klinik mit seinem Namen verknüpft.'; 'nannten den Namen des beschuldigten Arztes nicht'
Reported He asked Google to delete the results at the end of August; Google replied that it had reviewed the complaint and would take no action, and a warning letter from his lawyers the same day had no effect.
Causal attribution. As reported by beck-aktuell; Google's own statement was not inspected.
- beck-aktuell.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
'Der Mediziner forderte noch Ende August die Löschung dieser Ergebnisse.'; 'Doch Google antwortete, man habe die Beanstandung geprüft und werde keine Maßnahmen einleiten.'; 'die KI-generierten Inhalte blieben abrufbar'; 'Auch eine Abmahnung durch die Kölner Kanzlei Höcker vom selben Tag blieb ohne Ergebnis'
Reported By a decision of 24 September 2026 (8 O 268/26) the Aachen Regional Court issued a preliminary injunction barring Google Ireland Limited from further spreading the false claims through AI Mode, holding that the AI-generated texts violated his personality rights by attributing to him criminal accusations and employment consequences that concerned another person, and that Google is responsible for the answers of its AI search.
Causal attribution. The court's decision as reported; the decision text itself was not inspected. Both reports relay the same decision.
- beck-aktuell.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
'Das LG Aachen hat Google Ireland Limited nun per einstweiliger Verfügung untersagt, die falschen Behauptungen weiter über den KI-Modus zu verbreiten (Beschluss vom 24.09.2026 - 8 O 268/26).'; 'indem sie ihm strafrechtliche Vorwürfe und arbeitsrechtliche Konsequenzen zuordneten, die tatsächlich eine andere Person beträfen'
- ad-hoc-news.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
'Das Landgericht Aachen untersagte dem Technologiekonzern Google mit Beschluss vom 24. September 2026 (Az. 8 O 268/26), im KI-Modus Falschbehauptungen über einen Arzt zu verbreiten.'
Reported The court found the false statements publicly visible and capable of seriously damaging his professional honour and social standing, and noted that Google had done nothing to remove them despite his request and the warning letter.
Causal attribution. The court's reasoning as reported by beck-aktuell.
- beck-aktuell.de(opens in new tab) supports · German
'Die Falschinformationen seien öffentlich sichtbar und für jeden zugänglich.'; 'obwohl sie geeignet seien, den Arzt in seiner beruflichen Ehre und seinem sozialen Ansehen erheblich zu schädigen'
Sources
2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- beck-aktuell, 8 October 2026: Google muss KI-Halluzination löschen (German)(opens in new tab)
s1 · beck-aktuell.de · News report · German · Inspected · 8 October 2026 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
- ad-hoc-news.de, 12 October 2026: Google-KI im Visier: Landgericht Aachen untersagt falsche Arztbehauptung (German)(opens in new tab)
s2 · ad-hoc-news.de · News report · German · Inspected · 12 October 2026 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Read in German on 2026-10-15 (live page, HTTP 200; beck-aktuell, 8 October 2026, with an editorial note of 12 October 2026 that the description of his former post was slightly changed at his lawyer's request). Legal news report of the court's decision; translated by the research agent (an AI), no human translation. Applies to s1.
Read in German on 2026-10-15 (live page, HTTP 200; ad-hoc-news.de, 12 October 2026). A round-up article whose Aachen paragraph restates the decision's date, file number and legal basis; it adds no independent reporting. Translated by the research agent (an AI). Applies to s2.
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Germany. Court countries: Germany.
beck-aktuell says he worked as a chief physician at a German hospital (an einem deutschen Klinikum) and that the Aachen Regional Court issued the injunction, so the court country is DE and the affected person's country is DE by his work at a German hospital. No source says where the searches that displayed the answer were made, so the event country stays unknown.
Reviewed for publication 2026-10-15: A German court issued an injunction against Google after its AI Mode attributed another person's sexual-coercion conviction and dismissal to a physician, searched by name, who had no such record, and Google refused his removal request. Contextual relation made_claim_about; the case adds a court injunction holding the search provider responsible for its AI answer. The physician is not named.
People described
A physician in Germany, not named in any source, who until summer 2026 was a chief physician at a hospital.
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
One person, the physician about whom AI Mode made the false claims and who obtained the injunction.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). German court bars Google from repeating an AI Mode answer that falsely called a doctor a convicted sex offender. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-germany-court-bars-google-ai-mode-answer-falsely-calling-doctor-convicted-sex-offender
BibTeX
@misc{2026_germany_court_bars_google_ai_mode_answer_falsely_calling_doctor_convicted_sex_offender,
title = {German court bars Google from repeating an AI Mode answer that falsely called a doctor a convicted sex offender},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-germany-court-bars-google-ai-mode-answer-falsely-calling-doctor-convicted-sex-offender}
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