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Zurich court dismisses FIFA lawsuit against Google

Google does not have to delete articles about the world football association FIFA from its search results, the Zurich Commercial Court has ruled in rejecting a FIFA complaint. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox FIFA argued that the content of the websites in question violated personal rights and damaged its reputation. Several anonymously written articles on a website accuse FIFA of being corrupt. The lawsuit fails on the grounds of so-called passive legitimacy, according to the ruling of the Zurich Commercial Court, which was first reported by Swiss public broadcaster SRF on Thursday. FIFA was unable to prove that the critical articles could only be found using the search term "FIFA". Google could therefore not be held responsible for the subject matter of the dispute. The ruling is not yet final as FIFA can still appeal. Translated from German by DeepL/mga How we work This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox FIFA argued that the content of the websites in question violated personal rights and damaged its reputation. Several anonymously written articles on a website accuse FIFA of being corrupt. The lawsuit fails on the grounds of so-called passive legitimacy, according to the ruling of the Zurich Commercial Court, which was first reported by Swiss public broadcaster SRF on Thursday.

FIFA was unable to prove that the critical articles could only be found using the search term “FIFA”. Google could therefore not be held responsible for the subject matter of the dispute. The ruling is not yet final as FIFA can still appeal.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga.