A Defamation Declaration: Google Wins U.K. Libel Suit

[WSJ_law_blog]

As Google grows, so too does the list of legal scrapes it’s gotten itself into — with antitrust and copyright issues rising to the top of the docket in recent days. But the company can breathe a little easier in one area — U.K.-centered libel issues — after the British High Court ruled last Friday that that Google isn’t responsible for defamatory material trawled by its search engine. Click here and here for the WSJ and NYT stories, respectively.

Justice David Eady ruled that Google’s Internet search engine isn’t considered a publisher under defamation law, and therefore isn’t responsible for the content of the short descriptions of Web sites that appear in Google searches.

The case was initiated by Metropolitan International Schools Ltd., an online training company based in the U.K. The company had sued Google over comments posted on Web forums accusing the training company of running a scam, an allegation Metropolitan International Schools denied, according to the judgment.

The Web forums didn’t belong to Google, but Metropolitan International Schools sued Google for publicizing the claims through its search results. In its defense, Google argued it shouldn’t be held responsible for the content of the 39 billion Web pages available on the Internet.

Justice Eady ruled that there is “no reasonable prospect of success” and dismissed the suit.

Google “has not authorized or caused the snippet [search result] to appear on the user’s screen in any meaningful sense,” the judge wrote. “It has merely, by the provision of its search service, played the role of a facilitator.”

A Google spokesman said the decision “reinforces the principle that search engines aren’t responsible for content that is published on third-party Web sites.” A spokesman for Metropolitan International Schools couldn’t be reached for comment.