In November 2000 a French court order was issued against Yahoo! which required the company to ban access by French nationals to auctions hosted on yahoo.com selling Nazi memorabilia. The court order was based on French laws against the incitement of racial hatred. The case was brought by anti-racism groups.
If Yahoo! failed to comply with the order, it faced daily fines. Yahoo! objected to the ruling, saying the French court had no jurisdiction over the US-based company. It pointed out that on its French Yahoo! site, yahoo.fr, it already complied with French laws. However, before the deadline for yahoo.com’s compliance, Yahoo! announced that it would begin screening items before listing them in its on-line auctions to prevent the sale of items associated with hate groups, including Nazi memorabilia.
Yahoo! filed a lawsuit in December, asking a US Federal Court in San Jose, California, to declare that the French government has no jurisdiction over Yahoo! in the US and therefore cannot enforce its fines. The action was taken, says Yahoo!, to protect free speech on the internet. The judge, Jeremy Fogel, on Thursday threw out a French request for dismissal of the case, meaning the court will now hear and decide the case.