'Ad Blocking Is Not Piracy' Decision Overturned by Top German Court

Summary

There’s little doubt that online businesses reliant on advertising revenue are negatively affected by increasing use of ad blocking solutions. Yet it’s thanks to abusive and invasive ads, and threats to privacy due to incessant online tracking, that ad blockers became so popular. There’s a good argument today that an effective ad blocking solution is not just a way to keep out an avalanche of mostly unwanted advertising. In many cases ad blockers are seen as an essential tool in the internet user’s security toolbox and as a result, people are reluctant to turn them off. Axel Springer Acquires Target, Misses, Switches to New Weapon For German publisher Axel Springer, ad blocking solutions are mechanisms that fundamentally undermine the company’s ability to generate revenue. Hoping to force change, over a decade ago the company took legal action against Eyeo GmbH, the company behind Adblock Plus, arguing that the software interfered with its business model. In April 2018, Adblock Plus and Eyeo came out on top, when Germany’s Supreme Court found no breach of competition law. Still determined to take ad blocking out of the game, Springer changed tack. In a new lawsuit, the publisher alleged that AdBlock Plus removes ads by interfering with the “programming code of websites” which violates its exclusive rights under copyright law. Eyeo dismissed the claim as “almost absurd” and in January 2022 the Hamburg Regional Court denied Springer’s request for an injunction, ruling that there was no unauthorized copying or reworking of copyrighted computer programs as defined under local law. Springer appealed and in 2023 lost again, this time at the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg. Refusing to accept defeat, the publisher filed yet another appeal at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). Treatment of Software Under German Copyright Law While competition law may have been a dead end, copyright law can offer novel opportunities for the determined. Axel Springer’s argument is built on ...