Yahoo Is Cleared in Nazi Case

Yahoo Inc.’s former chief executive, Timothy Koogle, was cleared by a Paris appeals court Wednesday of allegations by civil rights groups that the company illegally linked to an auction of Nazi memorabilia on one of its websites.

“This judgment confirms that Koogle and Yahoo have always respected French law,” said Koogle’s lawyer, Olivier Metzner.

The case began in 2000, when France’s Union of Jewish Students and the International Anti-Racism and Anti-Semitism League sued Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo for allowing Nazi collectibles -- including flags emblazoned with swastikas -- to be sold on its auction pages.

Other groups later joined in the lawsuit.

Charles Korman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Wednesday that there would be an appeal.

France considers revisionist claims and Holocaust denial a criminal offense. It also bars the display or sale of racist material.

For example, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s anti-immigration National Front party, was placed under investigation in January for saying that the Nazi occupation of France was “not that inhumane.”

The Yahoo case led to a landmark decision in France, with the court ordering Yahoo to block the auctions and imposing a fine of $19,800 for each day it didn’t comply. Yahoo also was ordered to inform all users of the risks involved in continuing to view such sites.

In 2004, a lower court cleared Koogle of any wrongdoing in the case. Koogle, who left Yahoo in 2001, became interim chief executive of Internet company Friendster Inc. last year.

Eventually, Yahoo banned Nazi material as it began charging users to make auction listings, saying it did not want to profit from such material.

Associated Press and Bloomberg News were used in compiling this report.