French Court Rules It Has Jurisdiction Over Facebook

A court in Paris, France ruled that it had jurisdiction over Facebook in the case of a teacher who sued the company after he was suspended from the social network for posting a picture of a famous nude painting. Facebook argued that the site’s terms of service, which users consent to when they sign up, state that any legal disputes will be handled by courts in California, where the company is based. But the court, in Paris, ruled that the terms were unfair to French users, asserting that it had jurisdiction over Facebook as a result.

It was at least the second such ruling in France in recent years. The case was begun four years ago by a Parisian teacher, identified in media reports as Frédéric Durand-Baïssas. His Facebook account was suspended in February 2011 after he posted a link to a documentary on Gustave Courbet’s painting “The Origin of the World,” which included a picture of the painting and its depiction of a nude woman.