For the first time the Oberlandesgericht München (OLG München, Beschluss v. 27.4.2015, Az. 18 W 591/15) issued a preliminary injunction forbidding Google to publish a certain search result within its organic search.
The reason for this injunction was that the term „Betrugsverdacht“ (Suspicion of fraud) was linked to the company´s name leading to a report that falsely conveyed the impression it would be prosecuted for fraud by the state.
The ban is explicitly restricted to the territory of Germany. Violations can be fined with up to 250.000 € or by up to six months of order custody.
After the district court in Munich turned the request for a provisional injunction down, the appellate court issued the provisional injunction after a promptly following appeal not only immediately but also with an extensive explanatory statement.
The appellate court in Munich shared the view of the plaintiff that german law is applicable to the fact that the search result (or “Snippet”) together with the linked webpage constitutes an untrue and
reputational damaging statement of fact for which Google, in violation of its auditing duties, is liable as disruptor.
Though it was true, that investigations against the plaintiff had been underway, these didn’t concern fraud but a substantially less severe offense. Google had not reacted on extrajudicial requests or only by automatically generated E-Mails.
Regarding details of the decision and its motivation we refer to the thorough explanation of the OLG München. The decision is merely provisional, without legal capacity, and it’s open to objection. It is hoped that Google is taking the opportunity to take more responsibility for listed search results. At the latest when the person concerned unambiguously calls attention to a clear, concrete statutory violation, Google has to act, as every other distributor of third-party content has to as well.
Disclosure: Our office represented the plaintiff.