The site in question, hosted by the portal, sells Nazi, neo-Nazi
and Ku Klux Klan memorabilia to on-line bidders, including films,
swastikas, daggers, uniforms, photos and medals. The site puts up
hundreds of such items each day for auction.
It is understood that no Nazi memorabilia was available on
Yahoo!’s French site, yahoo.fr, but it is available at
yahoo.com.
It is illegal in France to sell or display anything that incites
racism. The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism
(known as LICRA) and the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF)
brought the action seeking a court order to make all such auctions
inaccessible to internet users in France and its territories.
Judge Jean-Jaques Gomez ordered Yahoo! to pay legal costs to
each of LICRA and UEJF and gave it two months to block the site
from Internet users in France. To comply, it is likely that
Yahoo!’s only option will be to remove the site entirely.
This is the first time a French court has issued such an order
on a foreign internet company. A Yahoo! spokesman said: “The real
question is whether a French jurisdiction can make a decision on
the English content of an American site run by an American company
for the sole reason that French users have access via the
internet.”
