Cloudflare's terms of use call out that it is governed by the laws of California and any litigation wipp be tried there [1]. How did Germany get to enforce their laws and courts on Cloudflare?
However in this case, Universal sued them without being a customer (or, if they are a customer, in a matter unrelated to their customer/vendor relationship). You can’t pick the venue where people/organizations that don’t have a contract with you sue you.
Of course, the other question is then how to enforce the court order. Since Cloudflare has a German subsidiary, that won’t be a problem.
Note also that the effect of this ruling is limited to the territory of Germany. Cloudflare doesn’t have to block this website anywhere else.
Thanks!
[1] https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-ordered-to-block-pirate-...
Universal Music didn't sign the contract, and it went to Germany's court.
In the US, the contract terms would normally bind the _parties to the contract._ Contracts are sometimes called "private law," as opposed to "public law." But in some circumstances and places, the government just declares the contract or provision legally void. Then, even the parties to the contract can't rely on it.
When they go against the law, yeah. You don't think it seems absurd for Cloudflare to do business worldwide but then insist it can only be reached in courts in California? That Cloudflare can just disavow compliance with German law because it says it likes California law?
Cloudflare either complies or is blocked within Germany. That happens Cloudflare loses lots of customers.
A couple of PoPs perhaps, but a lot of customers?
It would seriously hit CF's stock price as it would be a massive sign that there is a massive risk of other countries blocking it. And some competitor would pick up all the customers fleeing. CF is not the only game in town, switching to a competitor or just dropping it completely is often rather easy.
Any CEO running CF or similar company willing to call the bluff of a country on something like this should be booted by the board. It would have a massive effect on CF long term while it would have a reasonably short term effect to Germany and German consumers. For example, every sale call would have people asking if their primary markets are at the risk of being blocked. That's a major objection to add.
Make no mistake, being blocked in the 4th largest economy in the world is extremely bad for any company.
They also have job listings for 6 remote roles in Germany, so even if they had no offices there that suggests they have employees there which would probably open them up to some German law.
They have lots of German customers too.