Appeals court hears Yahoo's Nazi case
U.S. judges consider whether to intervene in a nearly five-year-old battle over the sale of Nazi paraphernalia on Yahoo in France.
Yahoo argued Thursday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it deserves protection in the United States from a French court's order banning it from selling Nazi-related items in France. A three-judge panel of the appeals court had previously ruled against the Internet firm.
"Yahoo needs the assurance that this (French court's) order is not enforceable in the U.S.," Yahoo attorney Robert Vanderet, told the court's full panel of 11 judges.
In May 2000, a French court granted the requests of two French human rights groups and ordered Yahoo to bar access to Nazi items and to remove related messages, images and literature from its site.
Yahoo's French subsidiary, Yahoo France, now removes Nazi material from its site, in accordance with French law barring the sale of Nazi-related memorabilia. Yahoo would be subject to heavy fines for failing to comply with French law.
However, Yahoo's U.S. Web site, Yahoo.com, hosts auctions of such items as stamps and coins from Nazi Germany, and hosts Nazi-themed and anti-Semitic discussion groups.
Yahoo sued the French rights groups in U.S. court in December 2000, asking it to declare the French court's decision "not recognizable or enforceable in the United States." The Internet media company also said that the French court's order violated its First Amendment rights.
Yahoo won that round, but a three-judge panel of the appeals court overturned the decision in August 2004. The panel ruled that U.S. courts cannot supersede orders from a foreign court when the foreign litigants have not brought the battle into the U.S. legal system.
In February, the full appeals court agreed to reconsider the case.
The judges focused their questions Thursday on whether Yahoo faced an imminent risk of fines or other penalties.
"We do face a massive fine," Vanderet said. He added that while Yahoo's French site complies with local law regarding Nazi memorabilia, Yahoo's U.S. site does not.
But Randol Schoenberg, representing the French rights groups, said they had "no intention to pursue a monetary judgment in the U.S."