IANAL but: Surely all Google, or any US search engine, would need to do is close down all local subsidiaries in states that are subject to the ECJ. EU member states would be free to attempt to block all access to google (or to refer the reasonableness of the preliminary ruling back to the ECJ; the explicit decision to allow the content provider to continue to serve the document at issue). Showing willingness to cut your population off from the big three search engines because the EU loves Spanish criminals would be an act of quite remarkable political courage in the week leading up to what could be the surliest European Parliamentary elections to date. If any litigant were to seek enforcement of a judgement of this kind against Google in California, I would expect to see summary judgement granted against them, as in the district court trial in LICRA v. Yahoo! ; the 9th circuit rulings against Yahoo! were based on ripeness, and the case was remanded for dismissal *without* prejudice.
Received on Sunday, 18 May 2014 01:06:04 UTC