Regulating the electronic marketplace through extraterritorial legislation: Google and eBay in the line of fire of French judges

Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie (2010) Regulating the electronic marketplace through extraterritorial legislation: Google and eBay in the line of fire of French judges. Internation Review of Law, Computers and Technology, 24 (1), 39-49. (doi:10.1080/13600860903570152).

Record type: Article

Abstract

If the Internet is not the cause of the current normative crisis suffered by states, it is one of the best examples of the regulatory difficulties experienced by public authorities, whose legitimacy to regulate behaviour is seriously challenged. This said, it is an illusion to think that cyberspace is beyond the reach of states. Furthermore, the problem raised by the regulation of the Internet lies more in the fact that too many laws claim to be applicable rather than too little. Indeed, national tort laws have been used at the international level to frame conducts on the electronic marketplace, and in particular, the conduct of intermediaries such as Google or eBay. Through the study of French case law, this paper thus seeks to give an example of the danger of overregulation that is likely to appear in cyberspace owing to the application of extraterritorial legislation, especially when the application of national law amounts to intermediaries’ liability.

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