The International Relations Committee brings you two recent judgments this month on the application of domestic laws on international businesses. The first judgment is a defamation action against Google. The second is an insolvency decision in the United Kingdom involving US and Australian Companies.

Defamation

Google has just lost a defamation case in Australia. From a news article,

“Google was yesterday found liable for damages by a jury in Australia after a man complained that the website’s search results had harmed his reputation by wrongly linking him to Melbourne gang crime.”

There is no judgment as yet on the damages, if you are interested keep an eye on the Recent Decisions page on Austlii. Earlier decisions are on Austlii.

Trkulja v Google Inc LLC & Anor (No 5) [2012] VSC 533 (12 November 2012) –   Judgment

Trkulja v Google Inc & Anor [2011] VSC 560 (3 November 2011) – Discovery

Trkulja v Google  Inc & Anor (No 3) [2011] VSC 503 (5 October 2011) – Confidentiality

Trkulja v Google Inc & Anor (No 2) [2010] VSC 490 – (28 October 2010) DEFAMATION – Pleading

Trkulja v Google Inc LLC & Anor [2010] VSC 226 (27 May 2010) – DEFAMATION – Pleading

Earlier this year Mr Trkulja won a similar case against Yahoo, Trkulja v Yahoo! Inc LLC & Anor [2012] VSC 88 (15 March 2012).

International Jurisdiction

The UK Supreme Court in New Cap Re v Grant (the case involved US and Australian interests) has decided that a foreign judgment cannot be enforced where a party has not submitted to the foreign jurisdiction.

The judgment asserts the importance of the territorial limits of foreign jurisdiction in insolvency proceedings, and the value of the UNCITRAL Model Law. See also the very handy Press summary.

Phil Mullen
SLA Legal Division International Relations Committee