In November 2000 a French court order was issued against Yahoo!
in November which required the company to ban access by French
nationals to auctions hosted on yahoo.com selling Nazi memorabilia.
Yahoo! then announced that it would now screen items before listing
them in its on-line auctions to prevent the sale of items
associated with hate groups, including Nazi and Ku Klux Klan
memorabilia.
Yahoo! Chairman Tim Koogle has been accused of “justifying war
crimes and crimes against humanity.” Lawyer Charles Korman,
representing the group bringing the action, spoke to news agency
Reuters. He said: “If you organise a system like an auction where
people bid for the best price, you excuse these crimes, and they
become commonplace.”
In addition to the nominal damages, the group is seeking an
order against Yahoo! requiring it to fund adverts in French and US
newspapers to publicise the judgment.
Yahoo! has a case pending before the US courts which, if
successful, would declare unenforceable the November judgment that
imposed French law on the portal’s US site.
