Canadian court orders another worldwide search result takedown

A Federal Court judge on Monday ordered a foreign website to be taken down and some of the content it published removed from search engines internationally due to a violation of Canadian privacy law, adding to the number of cases in which of a Canadian court has made such an extraterritorial order. Whether judges have the right to order such removals is up in the air. While the precedent was set in trademark infringement case involving Alphabet Inc.’s Google and a B.C. company, the Supreme Court of Canada is currently deciding on the legality of that order. According to Barry Sookman, a lawyer at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, such cases are also becoming more common worldwide. “It’s starting to be recognized as an important tool to deal with the evolution of the Internet,” Sookman said, noting that take-down orders against the likes of Facebook Inc., YouTube and other search engines “is something that is becoming more common,” pointing to several decisions out of courts in Europe. Monday’s decision involved defendant Sebastian Radulescu, a Romania-based operator of the website Globe24h.com, which republishes Canadian case law. The applicant, named “A.T.” in the public file, said the website has negatively affected their life because it makes decisions they were involved in easily obtainable in search engines by searching their name, whereas decisions on court websites are “generally not indexed,” according to court documents. The case — which invoked the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and involved Canada’s privacy commissioner — follows an order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia against Google to take down a foreign website from its indexes that was selling products that allegedly infringed on the patents of B.C.-based network-equipment maker Equustek Solutions Inc. Google argued in that case that the B.C. court did not have the jurisdiction to order the results removed from search engine results around the world, a position it repeated in its Supreme Court appeal, heard in December. “I wonder if the B.C. court had not ruled that way in Equustek have felt comfortable making this kind of order,” independent Internet lawyer Allen Mendelsohn said in a phone interview. “You never like to be the first judge to do something unique.” The Federal Court in Globe24h used the B.C. order as a reference case throughout the decision. Judge Richard Mosley determined that PIPEDA applies because the website held Canadian case law, the majority of visitors were from Canada and the website affected Canadians. It found the site’s inappropriate use of personal information without consent — and incentivizing payment to remove decisions — contravened the act. “The important point of Equustek is that the B.C. court held that a Canadian court has the jurisdiction to make an order against a non-resident, including to basically remove or prevent access from material worldwide,” Sookman said. Mendelsohn said that if the defendant refuses to comply with the order, A.T. and the privacy commissioner “may have a strategic advantage waiting for the Supreme Court to rule , but it’s a gamble.” “There’s no question that it’s an important order,” Mendelsohn said of the federal court’s ruling, adding a court case involving PIPEDA is also rare. “The more and more national courts rule internationally in this way, the more feasible it will be for attorneys to get these things in the future.” — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Canadian court orders another worldwide search result takedown

Broadcast | February 3, 2017

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Canadian court orders another worldwide search result takedown

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