This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Yahoo muss belgischen Behörden keine personenbezogenen Daten übergeb...
The Belgian Court of Appeal of Gand ruled on 30 June 2010 that Yahoo was not obliged to hand over personal data of its users to the Belgian authorities, in a case where the first instance had issued a contrary ruling.
In 2009, following a cybercrime investigation by the Belgian police, it was discovered that a group was using Yahoo e-mail addresses to commit online fraud. The members of the group stole data from various companies and used the data to order goods without paying. Yahoo was requested by the Belgian Public Prosecutor to hand over the IDs related to the e-mail addresses used by the group but the company refused to comply and, on 2 March 2009, received a 55 000 euro fine from a Termonde judge who also imposed a daily penalty fee of 10 000 euro in case of non-compliance with the judgment. The court did not consider Yahoo's argument that it was not subject to the Belgian law as it had no legal entity in Belgium and did not store any customer data in Belgium.
The appeal court has now decided that there was no legal basis for the 2009 ruling against the company. "There is not enough evidence that the providers of free of charge e-mail addresses are also electronic communication services. In other words, there is no proof that Yahoo deals directly with sending the signals. It has no control over the network as an e-mail provider" said the decision of the Appeal Court.
It is reported that, throughout the whole process, no attempt was ever made by the Belgian authorities to use existing Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty to obtain the requested data via recognised legal channels.
Gand: Yahoo! acquitted in appeal for not having transmitted data to justice
(only in French, 30.06.2010)
http://levif.rnews.be/fr/news/belga-generique/gand-yahoo-acquitte-en-a...
A Win for Yahoo! And for Privacy in Belgium (6.07.2010)
http://www.yhumanrightsblog.com/blog/2010/07/06/a-win-for-yahoo-and-fo...
EDRi-gram: Yahoo penalised in Belgium for not disclosing personal data
(11.03.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.5/belgium-decision