Cases

Metropolitan International Schools Ltd v (1) Designtechnica Corporation (2) Google UK Ltd & (3) Google Inc

Comment

This was the first decision in the United Kingdom on the liability of search engines for defamation and offers great comfort to search engines. Eady J developed the common law to offer what amounts to immunity from liability for defamatory content within search results - something that the Government had omitted to do when considering an expansion of the protection afforded by the E-commerce Regulations. Although the Judge appears to acknowledge in his judgment that a voluntary or statutory take-down procedure for search engines may be desirable, his finding that they are not publishers must make it questionable whether search engines will now take down libellous material from their servers. The judgment is also notable for the ruling that the defence of innocent dissemination at common law was not abolished by s.1 of the 1996 Act.

Areas of work

Defamation
Foreign Jurisdictions
Media Law

Also