Yahoo's legal battle with the French government over the sale of Nazi items on its websites had a new twist on Monday when a American appeals court reversed an earlier decision that found that the US Constitution protected the web provider from legal action over the issue in the United States. The latest ruling is part of a four-year-old case brought by anti-hate-speech groups in France. In 2000, a court in France had ordered Yahoo to block all sales of Nazi items to French citizens on its websites, citing a law prohibiting the sale or exhibition of objects associated with racism.
The web portal claimed that the French courts had no authority over material hosted on its servers in the United States and then took legal action to prove its point. In November 2001, a Californian court ruled that the French could not enforce their ban in the US. It went on to say that the case would also violate Yahoo's constitutional rights. In Monday's ruling, the appeals court said that Californian tribunal had no right to hear this case as the French government had not asked the American judiciary to enforce the ban in the United States.