Trkulja v Google LLC [2018] HCA 25

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

KIEFEL CJ, BELL, KEANE, NETTLE AND GORDON JJ

MILORAD TRKULJA (AKA MICHAEL TRKULJA) APPELLANT

AND

GOOGLE LLC RESPONDENT

Trkulja v Google LLC [2018] HCA 25 13 June 2018 M88/2017

ORDER

1. Pursuant to r 42.07.1 of the High Court Rules 2004 (Cth) Google LLC is made the respondent to this appeal in substitution for Google Inc.

2. Appeal allowed.

3. Set aside orders 2 to 6 of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria made on 20 December 2016 and, in their place, order that the appeal be dismissed with costs.

4. The respondent pay the appellant's costs of the appeal to this Court.

On appeal from the Supreme Court of Victoria

Representation

G O'L Reynolds SC with P A Heywood-Smith QC and D P Hume for the appellant (instructed by George Liberogiannis & Associates)

N J Young QC with L G De Ferrari SC for the respondent (instructed by Ashurst Australia)

Notice: This copy of the Court's Reasons for Judgment is subject to formal revision prior to publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.

CATCHWORDS

Trkulja v Google LLC

Defamation – Publication – Capacity to defame – Where application for summary dismissal of defamation proceeding – Where allegedly defamatory matter includes search results of internet search engine – Where allegedly defamatory matter includes autocomplete predictions of internet search engine – Whether respondent published allegedly defamatory matter – Whether matter capable of conveying allegedly defamatory imputations – Whether proceeding had no real prospect of success.

Words and phrases – "autocomplete", "capacity to defame", "composite publication", "defamation", "defamatory image", "no real prospect of success", "ordinary reasonable person", "publication", "search engine", "search results", "search terms", "summary dismissal", "summary judgment".