In November 2000 a French court order was issued against Yahoo! in November which required the company to ban access by French nationals to auctions hosted on yahoo.com selling Nazi memorabilia. Yahoo! then announced that it would now screen items before listing them in its on-line auctions to prevent the sale of items associated with hate groups, including Nazi and Ku Klux Klan memorabilia.
Yahoo! Chairman Tim Koogle has been accused of “justifying war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Lawyer Charles Korman, representing the group bringing the action, spoke to news agency Reuters. He said: “If you organise a system like an auction where people bid for the best price, you excuse these crimes, and they become commonplace.”
In addition to the nominal damages, the group is seeking an order against Yahoo! requiring it to fund adverts in French and US newspapers to publicise the judgment.
Yahoo! has a case pending before the US courts which, if successful, would declare unenforceable the November judgment that imposed French law on the portal’s US site.