G. L. E. c/ Yahoo De Argentina Srl y Otro s/daños y perjuicios

This case is one among numerous civil lawsuits brought against the search engines Google and Yahoo! by different ‘celebrities’ and well‐known public figures for violation of their honor and privacy. Similar to “Giovanetti”, the Court stated that a generic preliminary injunction ordering the removal of allegedly infringing content is not sufficient to make a search engine liable. However, in this case, the Court observed that although the lower judge’s order was too broad, the plaintiff had presented documentary evidence that contained a list specifying the infringing websites in issue. Thus, the Court concluded, Google had actual knowledge of the unlawful content and was liable for its failure to promptly remove it.

This landmark case addressed the liability of search engines for linking in search results to third-party content that violates fundamental rights or infringes copyright. Because Argentina had no intermediary liability legislation at the time, the Supreme Court reviewed domestic and international law, and reasoned from tort principles and constitutional or human rights law. Its decision was largely favorable to search engines. The Court (1) repudiated a strict liability standard on the basis of the threat it would pose to free expression rights; (2) held that search engines could not be liable for unlawful content upon notification unless a public authority had adjudicated the material as unlawful, with exceptions for cases of "gross and manifest harm"; (3) rejected any filtering obligation to prevent infringing links...