BBC News Online: World: Europe

France bans internet Nazi auctions

In a landmark ruling, Judge Jean-Jaques Gomez gave Yahoo! Until 24 July to comply with his order.

Existing French law prohibits the selling or display of anything that incites racism.

The judge said online neo-Nazi auctions offended "the collective memory of the country".

Nazi-related items are not available on Yahoo's French site www.yahoo.fr.

But an estimated 1,000 items including Nazi and Ku Klux Klan objects, pictures, coins and flags are auctioned each day on Yahoo's American site - www.yahoo.com - which is accessible from France.

Last week, the Union of Jewish Students and the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) filed a law suit against Yahoo! accusing it of allowing access to websites auctioning Nazi memorabilia.

They also asked that Yahoo! be forced to stop such sales in France and be fined $91,000 for each day that it did not comply with the law.

Yahoo said it condemned all forms of racism but added the case raised significant questions.

A lawyer for the internet service provider said the real question was whether a French court had jurisdiction over the English-language content of an American website.

And the director of Yahoo.fr, Philippe Guillanton, said: "The point is whether we want the internet to be closed the same way that the media have traditionally been closed by frontiers."

Yahoo! has previously argued that it could not guarantee respect for laws in every country in which it accessed.

But Marc Levy, who represented Licra in the case, said the court had rendered a service to the internet, which ran the risk of becoming a "no law zone".

The judge also ordered Yahoo to pay 10,000ff ($1,390) each to the two groups which brought the case.