Google to Appeal French Court Ruling in Search Engine Case
Google Inc. will appeal a French court decision ordering the company to pay 5,000 euros ($6,750) in damages to a convicted sex offender because its search engine suggested defamatory keywords when his name was entered.
Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce, a Paris-based Google spokeswoman, said the company plans to appeal because its searches are “algorithmically determined based on a number of purely objective factors” including the popularity of keywords.
“Google does not suggest these terms,” she said in an e- mailed statement today. “All of the queries shown have been typed previously by other Google users.”
The ruling by the Paris high court on Sept. 8 is carried by website Legalis.net, an aggregator of French legal decisions. It was reported yesterday by Le Monde, which said the unidentified plaintiff was separately appealing a conviction for “corruption of a minor.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Fabio Benedetti-Valentini in Paris at fabiobv@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya Root in Paris at vroot@bloomberg.net
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