He said it was the first time, to his knowledge, that an online content editor had been asked to impose national limits to material on the internet. But Mr Guillanton said filters detecting keywords to block access to pages would also prevent people from accessing genuine World War II historical sites. Expert advice Judge Gomez set up a three-member expert panel to advise him following the company's appeal in July. The panel said on 6 November that although there were technologies that could block internet users in a given location from accessing a particular site, those technologies were not foolproof. Mr El Harrar said the ruling confirmed the UEJF position that Yahoo was technically capable of stopping French users from participating in auctions.
French law prohibits selling or exhibiting material with racist connotations.
Yahoo's French site does not offer Nazi items for auction. However, Yahoo's US site had 1,982 Nazi-related items for auction, including Swastika armbands, flags, hats and military decorations, at the time of the ruling on Tuesday. Yahoo shares fell sharply on the Nasdaq index of high-tech stocks following the court ruling.