Germany's Yahoo Bans Auction of Nazi Items

BERLIN -- Yahoo Deutschland, the German subsidiary of Yahoo, says it is confident an investigation into an alleged online auction of banned Nazi propaganda will be dismissed.

Yahoo's legal adviser has assured the company that the investigation, announced Monday by Munich state prosecutor Manfred Wick, will be called off, says Claudia Strixner, Yahoo Deutschland spokesperson.

Wick opened the investigation after allegations that a copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf had been listed on Yahoo Deutschland's auction site on February 1. The book is illegal under German laws banning Nazi propaganda.

"We first found out about [the auction listing] in November," Strixner says. "Our position is that of course we absolutely refuse to have Nazi material on our Web pages. Here in Germany we support actions and movements against right-wing radicalism."

The company conducts regular controls of its pages and removes any illegal items posted by customers, Strixner says.

Differs From French Feud

Last week, a French judge ruled that Yahoo must install filters to prevent French users from taking part in auctions of Nazi memorabilia on the U.S. site. The decision has drawn international interest because of its potential ramifications for national laws regulating cross-border Internet transactions. (See "Judge to Yahoo: Block Nazi Goods From French" and "Yahoo Wins Reprieve in Nazi Sales Case.")

But Strixner says the Munich investigation can't be compared to the French case.

"In France we had a case against Yahoo, our parent company, for selling things that are legal in the U.S. but illegal in France. Here it's a completely different matter, in that it's about allegedly having something on Yahoo Deutschland that's illegal under German law," she says.