Frankfurt Regional Court imposes fine of €10,000 against YouTube
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By order of 3 January 2024, the Regional Court of Frankfurt imposed a fine of €10,000 on YouTube (Google) (Regional Court of Frankfurt, order of 3 January 2024, ref. 2-03 O 569/23).
The background to this is interim injunction proceedings, which we have reported on here: Frankfurt Regional Court issues three preliminary injunctions against two ‘influencers’ in Dubai and against YouTube
YouTube often responds to deletion requests and bids with a ‘block’ for Germany. They apparently believed that this would fulfil their obligation to cease and desist. Das ist aber nicht der Fall. This is not a blocking of the video in question in the sense that the video cannot be viewed in Germany or via German websites. Server would no longer be accessible. This means that ‘blocked’ videos can still be accessed regularly without any problems by changing the specified ‘location’ via the website on the desktop and in the mobile version.
See exemplary screenshot:
The regional court had the following to say about this in the current ruling:
However, the mere blocking in the country version does not sufficiently fulfil the implementation of the ban on publishing certain content in Germany. This is because the user can change the location to any other country with just a few clicks in the settings on the debtor’s website. The debtor does not check the accuracy of the user’s location information. Contrary to the debtor’s submission, changing the country version also does not require any special prior knowledge; this is possible – as is known in court – with just a few clicks in the YouTube app or via the web browser.
We have already pointed out the inadequacy of such an approach here:
Frankfurt Regional Court: YouTube must delete influencer video with voice message
We do not yet know whether Google has lodged an appeal against this or whether this decision is legally binding.
(Disclosure: LHR represented the applicants).
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