Google tried to overturn a landmark Munich ruling on AI search liability by appealing, then quietly settled. The strategy isn't working. The Aachen Regional Court just applied the exact same reasoning in a new case where Google's AI falsely attributed criminal offenses to a doctor that actually involved someone else. A consistent legal view is forming across German courts, and it treats Google's AI answers as the company's own content.
It’s who got sued, but I assume that it sets legal precedent for all. I’m not German though, so I don’t know how their legal system works.
It’s precedent-ish. The first court in Munich did the hard work from scratch. The Aachen court copied and pasted their logic into their own ruling. There is a strong chance that for the time being other courts will come up with similar rulings under comparable case conditions. But Google may be waiting for a case where they are not quite as likely to lose if they appeal. Funny shit can still happen, especially if the highest federal court can be convinced to rule on a case like this. So it’s too early to tell if this precedent has more long lasting staying power.
Other courts might look at it for inspiration, but since Germany has a civil law system (as opposed to the common law system that is usual in English-speaking countries), prior rulings do not really have as much significance as “legal precedent” here.