Google’s French arm has been told it will have to pay a 1,000 euro fine every day should the parent company in America – Google Inc - fail to remove a defamatory article from its global network.

The order, by a court in Paris, is an enforcement of the controversial so-called ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling.

The case was brought against Google by Dan Shefet, a Danish lawyer employed in France, last August following a malicious campaign against his firm by various blogs and sites that was overseen by someone who couldn’t be traced.

Google’s French arm has been told it will have to pay a 1,000 euro fine every day should the parent company in America – Google Inc - fail to remove a defamatory article from its global network

Google France complied with an order for links to the defamatory articles to be removed, but the U.S parent company did not, The Guardian reported.

This means that the articles are not visible to internet users in France, but are to anyone based outside the country.

Mr Shefet said that it was important for the parent company to remove the articles from its entire network because his firm has a global reputation.

He said: ‘Google France complied, but in spite of serving judgment on Google Inc nothing happened. They simply didn’t comply and didn’t even respond to the French court order.’

The latest judgement by the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance was made possible, Mr Shefet explained, by a clause in the right to be forgotten ruling that links divisions in multinational companies.

It says: 'The activities of the operator of the search engine and those of its establishment situated in the member state concerned are inextricably linked.'

The order is a punitive one and opens the door for other Google subsidiaries to be sued should the parent company ignore requests for defamatory articles to be wiped off the network.

Mr Shefet added: ‘Now a daily penalty can be inflicted upon Google UK by local courts until Google Inc delivers the result by way of [removing links] world wide.’

The case was brought against Google by Dan Shefet, a Danish lawyer employed in France, last August following a malicious campaign against his firm by various blogs and sites that was overseen by someone who couldn’t be traced

A Google spokesman told The Guardian: ‘A Google spokesperson said: “This was initially a defamation case and it began before the CJEU ruling on the right to be forgotten. We are reviewing the ruling and considering our options.’

This week Sajid Javid warned that terrorists are exploiting the right to be forgotten rule to wipe stories about their trials from Google in a move that amounts to censorship by the back door.

The Culture Secretary condemned ‘Luxembourg’s unelected judges’ who created the rule.

In a forthright speech to newspaper editors, Mr Javid accused European courts of ‘trying to restrict media freedom’ and took aim at the BBC for competing with news websites like MailOnline.

Last month it emerged Google has deleted more than 18,000 web links following requests from UK Requests from Britain included a former clergyman who wanted to remove links to articles about a sex abuse investigation and a doctor who botched a medical procedure.

Google said it deleted 35 per cent, or 18,459, of the unwanted links Britons requested be removed.

Mr Javid said the scale of the attempts to remove links to news stories was a threat to journalism.

‘Since Luxembourg’s unelected judges created the so-called “right to be forgotten”, Google has been receiving a demand for deletion every 90 seconds,’ he told the Society of Editors conference in Southampton.

‘Each day, a thousand requests pour in from people who, for one reason or another, would prefer their pasts to be kept secret.

‘Criminals are having their convictions airbrushed from history even if they have since committed other, similar crimes.