League Against Racism & Antisemitism v. YAHOO! Inc.

Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo) (defendant) and its French affiliate Yahoo! France (Yahoo France) were sued in the Paris County Court (the county court) by the League Against Racism & Antisemitism (plaintiff) concerning Nazi-related items appearing on the Yahoo Auctions website. Article R645-1 of the French Penal Code forbade the display of Nazi-oriented materials. Evidence was adduced that once a terminal located in France connected to Yahoo, Yahoo would send an advertising banner written in French. In an order entered on May 22, 2000 (the May 22 order), the county court ordered Yahoo to “take all reasonable measures” to prevent access to Yahoo Auctions to the extent that Nazi-related items appeared on that site. The May 22 order also directed Yahoo France to embed a warning, appearing even before access occurred, that viewing items prohibited by French law would present risks to the viewer. Yahoo lodged objections to the May 22 order on two principal grounds: (1) the county court lacked competency to issue a ruling in the dispute; and (2) it was not possible, from a technical standpoint, to implement measures that would comply with the May 22 order. The county court assembled a panel of consultants to assess Yahoo’s technical-impossibility objection. The consultants issued reports agreeing that an IP address allowed an internet service provider to determine the physical location of an internet user to a 70 percent success rate. Additionally, it was determined that in other cases, Yahoo could send a request for the user to execute a declaration of nationality, and that Yahoo could employ filtering methods targeted toward French users.