Yahoo! under threat of French boycott

Suzanna Kerridge, Paris correspondent

Yahoo!'s legal battle to protect its right to host sites auctioning Nazi memorabilia intensified as one of its prosecutors called for a boycott of the Californian internet portal. The Movement against Racism and for the Friendship among People (MRAP) is calling for the government to ban access by French schools and public services to the portal. MRAP said it had joined the legal action against Yahoo! and claimed that rejecting any control over the websites elevated the portal from acting as a "go-between" to "an active agent for the profitable sale of historical tragic objects." Yahoo! found itself in the French law courts after International League against Racism and anti-Semitism (LICRA) claimed the company was breaking French law by hosting an auction site that sold Neo-Nazi, Nazi and Ku Klux Klan objects. It is against French law to exhibit or sell objects with racist overtones.