The US search engine giant said on Friday that Google had received orders in Mexico to pay nearly $245 million for “moral damage” to an individual, announcing its intention to appeal.
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The US company said in a brief statement to AFP that Google ordered on June 13 to pay five billion pesos to lawyer Ulrich Richter Morales, his wife and their joint company.
Google is accused of “tolerating the blog and allowing it to publish a blog” that damages the lawyer’s reputation.
“Once again, we regret the conviction on appeal” from a civil court in Mexico City “which we consider arbitrary, excessive and baseless,” adds Google, which asserts that it will “defend itself to the last resort, as this ruling violates freedom of expression and other fundamental principles.” The case could now go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The plaintiff accuses Google of allowing the publication of a blog that implicates him in money laundering, influence peddling and document falsification.
“I am speechless. Thanks,” this lawyer commented Friday on Twitter, author of several books on citizenship, one of which is called Digital Citizen. Fake news and post-truth in the internet age.
Morales Richter claims to have asked Google to remove the blog since 2015.
Then he filed a complaint for “moral damage” and actually won the first instance court.
Google has already faced many other complaints in other countries.
The Australian Federal Court in early June ordered the internet giant to pay more than 466,000 euros to an Australian politician believed to have been defamed in videos of a comedian hosted on YouTube, owned by Google.
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