fRAnCE
fRAnCE
GooGLE REfUsED to ExPLAIn HoW tHE REsULts
ARE RAnKED, foR ConfIDEntIALItY REAsons
Th e answers he proposed are mostly favourable to Google whether the mark (the brand) and ‘arnaque’ (scam) was damaging the image of the company
used is well known or not. However, the Advocate General suggested that even though it was the result of an automatic computation and ‘direct energie
Google is not providing a warehousing service as defi ned by Article 14 of
arnaque’ pages do exist. Th e court held that the suggestions had to cease
Directive 2000/31 (the e-Commerce Directive) and could not benefi t from
despite freedom of speech. It decided that should ‘direct energie arnaque’
its alleged liability system.
continue to come up as a suggestion, Google would have to explain on its
home page how the list of suggestions is established.
Another claim against Google concerned its ‘Google suggestions’ service,
which suggests to the user of the search engine ways of completing the
search terms. Th is function has been the default choice since summer 2008.
Richard Milchior is a partner at Granrut Avocats. He can be contacted at:
Th e company CNFDI found out that when users search for its name, Google
r.milchior@granrut.com
suggests the answer ‘cnfdi arnaque’ (cnfdi scam). In summary proceedings,
Google refused to explain how the results are ranked, for confi dentiality
reasons. Since the debate was based upon the issue of freedom of expression
and pages featuring ‘cnfdi arnaque’ do exist, it was decided by the Paris Court
Richard Milchior is a partner in Granrut Avocats, and practises
IP, EU and competition law. He holds several degrees, including
of fi rst instance in summary proceedings on July 10, 2009 that granting the
Paris IEP (1977), Masters in Economics (Paris-x 1979), PhD on
plaintiff ’s request would be an undue restriction of freedom of speech.
‘Copyright and the Common Market’, and Master of Comparative
A diff erent result was reached in the ‘direct energie arnaque’ case in a
Jurisprudence (nYU) 1983 and Mediation (fsU 2008). He chairs
December 9, 2009 appellate decision. Th is time, the debate was not centred
the LRC Europe subcommittee at IntA.
on freedom of speech issues. Th e court held that combining ‘direct energie’
76 World Intellectual Property Review Digest 2009 www.worldipreview.com
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