LONDON (Brand Republic) - A French court has ruled that internet portal company Yahoo! must ban French users from accessing Nazi memorabilia for sale on Yahoo鈥檚 US website.
The ruling made yesterday is seen as a landmark case. It marks the first time a national court has imposed rulings on websites based in another country.
Yesterday鈥檚 judgement gives Yahoo! three months to find a way of blocking French users from accessing the auction sites on yahoo.com, where the Nazi memorabilia is sold, or pay a fine of FFr100,000 (£9,000) a day.
A spokeswoman for Yahoo鈥檚 Paris office said the company would appeal. The other option open for the company is to ask the US to refuse to endorse the ruling.
The spokeswoman said, "We do not know how to do such a thing technically. The internet is far too large.鈥
A series of court hearings began in April after French anti-racist groups complained against the company. In one hearing, Yahoo! agreed to block the sale of Nazi memorabilia on its French sites, but said that it would be technically impossible to identify the nationality of users accessing the offending US sites.
The court rejected the argument after three experts appointed by the court said that it was possible to implement a system to identify 90% of French-based users trying to buy Nazi memorabilia.
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