No more Blocktoberfest? German court throws book at ad blockers
(2025/08/15)
- Reference: 1755289918
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/15/german_court_ruling_ad_blocking/
- Source link:
A recent ruling by the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has reopened the possibility that using ad blocking software could violate copyright law in Germany.
In [1]a decision last month, the BGH – the final court of appeals on civil and criminal matters – partially overturned an appeals court decision in an 11-year copyright dispute brought by publisher Axel Springer against Adblock Plus maker Eyeo GmbH.
The ruling says that the appeals court erred when it determined that the use of ad blocking software does not infringe on a copyright holder's exclusive right to modify a computer program.
[2]
Springer has argued – unsuccessfully so far – that its website code falls under the control of the German Copyright Act. So modifying the web page's Document Object Model (DOM) or Cascading Style Sheets – a common way to alter or remove web page elements – represents copyright infringement under the company's interpretation of the law.
[3]
[4]
The appellate court that initially heard and rejected that argument will now have to revisit the matter, a process likely to add several years to a case that Eyeo [5]believed was settled seven years ago.
Eyeo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While it offers ad blocking software, the company generates revenue from ads through its [6]Acceptable Ads program – advertisers pay to have ads that are "respectful, nonintrusive and relevant" exempted from filtering. Non-commercial open source projects like [7]uBlock Origin rely on community support.
[8]
Philipp-Christian Thomale, senior legal counsel for Axel Springer, celebrated the ruling in a [9]post to LinkedIn, calling it "a true milestone in the copyright protection of software – especially with regard to cloud-based applications (SaaS)."
Among the implications, he argues, is that "software providers will be better equipped to defend against manipulation by third-party software."
While the outcome remains undecided, Mozilla senior IP & product counsel Daniel Nazer worries that if the German courts ultimately uphold the copyright claim, that will hinder user choice on the internet.
[10]
"We sincerely hope that Germany does not become the second jurisdiction (after China) to ban ad blockers," he wrote in a [11]blog post on Thursday.
"This will significantly limit users’ ability to control their online environment and potentially open the door to similar restrictions elsewhere. Such a precedent could embolden legal challenges against other extensions that protect privacy, enhance accessibility, or improve security."
[12]Perplexity vexed by Cloudflare's claims its bots are bad
[13]Perplexity AI accused of scraping content against websites' will with unlisted IP ranges
[14]Your browser has ad tech's fingerprints all over it, but there's a clean-up squad in town
[15]Stuff a Pi-hole in your router because your browser is about to betray you
Ad blocking, or more broadly content blocking, can [16]save battery life on mobile devices, improve page load times, reduce bandwidth consumption, and [17]protect against malicious ads and nation-states that use ads for offensive cyber operations . The US Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2022 [18]advised , "Use an ad blocking extension when performing internet searches," as a defense against malicious search ads.
And as Nazer observes, there are many reasons other than ad blocking that one might wish to alter a webpage, such as [19]improving accessibility , [20]evaluating accessibility , or [21]protecting privacy .
However, online advertising is also one of the primary ways that publishers pay their bills. Ad blockers prevent those publishers from earning the revenue they may need to stay in business.
Alexander Hanff, managing director of privacy and data protection consultancy Hanff & Co. AB and occasional contributor to El Reg , said he thought that the ad blocking issue had already settled, noting that he served as a lobbyist and consultant for Eyeo from 2015 through 2018 and attended some of the relevant court cases.
"If the German Supreme Court rules that this is a copyright violation then they would be in direct breach of [22]TFEU [Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union] as such a judgment would not comply with EU law," he told The Register in an email, pointing to Recital 66 of 2009/136/EC.
Hanff said he was told in writing around 2016 by the EU Commission's Legal Services that "ad blockers and other such tools absolutely fall into the category of 'appropriate settings of a browser or other application' as a means of providing or refusing consent for such technologies (adtech)."
Hanff suggested that someone file an amicus brief to inform the Court that a judgment against ad blockers would open Germany up for Infringement Proceedings under the TFEU. ®
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=en&Datum=Aktuell&Sort=12288&nr=142467&linked=pm&Blank=1
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://resources.eyeo.com/german-supreme-court-ad-blocking-legal-axel-springer-lose-final-appeal
[6] https://acceptableads.com/
[7] https://ublockorigin.com/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bgh-i-zr-13123-adblocker-iv-philipp-christian-thomale-uense/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2025/08/14/is-germany-on-the-brink-of-banning-ad-blockers-user-freedom-privacy-and-security-is-at-risk/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/05/perplexity_vexed_by_cloudflares_claims/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/perplexity_ai_crawlers_accused_data_raids/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/opinion_browser/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/08/pi_hole_6_flyby/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/28/brave_powers/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/microsoft_bing_chat_malware/
[18] https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2022/PSA221221
[19] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/accessibility-features-firefox
[20] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/accessibility-features-firefox
[21] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/tag/privacy/
[22] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/tfeu_2012/oj/eng
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
In [1]a decision last month, the BGH – the final court of appeals on civil and criminal matters – partially overturned an appeals court decision in an 11-year copyright dispute brought by publisher Axel Springer against Adblock Plus maker Eyeo GmbH.
The ruling says that the appeals court erred when it determined that the use of ad blocking software does not infringe on a copyright holder's exclusive right to modify a computer program.
[2]
Springer has argued – unsuccessfully so far – that its website code falls under the control of the German Copyright Act. So modifying the web page's Document Object Model (DOM) or Cascading Style Sheets – a common way to alter or remove web page elements – represents copyright infringement under the company's interpretation of the law.
[3]
[4]
The appellate court that initially heard and rejected that argument will now have to revisit the matter, a process likely to add several years to a case that Eyeo [5]believed was settled seven years ago.
Eyeo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While it offers ad blocking software, the company generates revenue from ads through its [6]Acceptable Ads program – advertisers pay to have ads that are "respectful, nonintrusive and relevant" exempted from filtering. Non-commercial open source projects like [7]uBlock Origin rely on community support.
[8]
Philipp-Christian Thomale, senior legal counsel for Axel Springer, celebrated the ruling in a [9]post to LinkedIn, calling it "a true milestone in the copyright protection of software – especially with regard to cloud-based applications (SaaS)."
Among the implications, he argues, is that "software providers will be better equipped to defend against manipulation by third-party software."
While the outcome remains undecided, Mozilla senior IP & product counsel Daniel Nazer worries that if the German courts ultimately uphold the copyright claim, that will hinder user choice on the internet.
[10]
"We sincerely hope that Germany does not become the second jurisdiction (after China) to ban ad blockers," he wrote in a [11]blog post on Thursday.
"This will significantly limit users’ ability to control their online environment and potentially open the door to similar restrictions elsewhere. Such a precedent could embolden legal challenges against other extensions that protect privacy, enhance accessibility, or improve security."
[12]Perplexity vexed by Cloudflare's claims its bots are bad
[13]Perplexity AI accused of scraping content against websites' will with unlisted IP ranges
[14]Your browser has ad tech's fingerprints all over it, but there's a clean-up squad in town
[15]Stuff a Pi-hole in your router because your browser is about to betray you
Ad blocking, or more broadly content blocking, can [16]save battery life on mobile devices, improve page load times, reduce bandwidth consumption, and [17]protect against malicious ads and nation-states that use ads for offensive cyber operations . The US Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2022 [18]advised , "Use an ad blocking extension when performing internet searches," as a defense against malicious search ads.
And as Nazer observes, there are many reasons other than ad blocking that one might wish to alter a webpage, such as [19]improving accessibility , [20]evaluating accessibility , or [21]protecting privacy .
However, online advertising is also one of the primary ways that publishers pay their bills. Ad blockers prevent those publishers from earning the revenue they may need to stay in business.
Alexander Hanff, managing director of privacy and data protection consultancy Hanff & Co. AB and occasional contributor to El Reg , said he thought that the ad blocking issue had already settled, noting that he served as a lobbyist and consultant for Eyeo from 2015 through 2018 and attended some of the relevant court cases.
"If the German Supreme Court rules that this is a copyright violation then they would be in direct breach of [22]TFEU [Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union] as such a judgment would not comply with EU law," he told The Register in an email, pointing to Recital 66 of 2009/136/EC.
Hanff said he was told in writing around 2016 by the EU Commission's Legal Services that "ad blockers and other such tools absolutely fall into the category of 'appropriate settings of a browser or other application' as a means of providing or refusing consent for such technologies (adtech)."
Hanff suggested that someone file an amicus brief to inform the Court that a judgment against ad blockers would open Germany up for Infringement Proceedings under the TFEU. ®
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=en&Datum=Aktuell&Sort=12288&nr=142467&linked=pm&Blank=1
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://resources.eyeo.com/german-supreme-court-ad-blocking-legal-axel-springer-lose-final-appeal
[6] https://acceptableads.com/
[7] https://ublockorigin.com/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bgh-i-zr-13123-adblocker-iv-philipp-christian-thomale-uense/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJ-t84c6XxRy2hSBY0u63QAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2025/08/14/is-germany-on-the-brink-of-banning-ad-blockers-user-freedom-privacy-and-security-is-at-risk/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/05/perplexity_vexed_by_cloudflares_claims/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/perplexity_ai_crawlers_accused_data_raids/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/opinion_browser/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/08/pi_hole_6_flyby/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/28/brave_powers/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/microsoft_bing_chat_malware/
[18] https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2022/PSA221221
[19] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/accessibility-features-firefox
[20] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/accessibility-features-firefox
[21] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/tag/privacy/
[22] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/tfeu_2012/oj/eng
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
Can we add a html header variable that prohibits the transmission of advertiseents in response to an HTTP get/post command?
How would they enforce this?
DS999
Maybe they can make it so Firefox etc. can't offer ad blockers in their downloadable extensions in Germany, but what about people manually installing them? Is Firefox itself supposed to recognize what extensions are ad blockers and block them?
I can't imagine Google would be at all unhappy about this development though - they're doing their best to make it so Chrome users worldwide can't install ad blockers! They might say "we treat the EU as a block so the German ban will apply to all EU countries" lol
Re: How would they enforce this?
b0llchit
If necessary, the EU court system will have a say in this, eventually.
Ads, GFY
b0llchit
So, if an adblocker is "not legal" because it "modifies" the DOM, then using NoScript must be completely illegal because it prevents software referenced in the DOM to execute on my computer.
Next they will be telling me that I need to execute program X and program Y because not doing so would be illegal? Who the fuck do they think they are?
What a stupid decision
Anonymous Coward
You can put whatever you want in a web page.
It's MY decision on which bits I want to actually look at.
PS are the website owners now going to be liable if the ad server sends me a virus ?
I don't use an ad blocker to block ads...
Anonymous Coward
I use it to block code . Having had a machine compromised by a malicious ad, I'm not eager to repeat the experience!
Make your ads static pictures (and ideally served from the domain that I'm actually visiting), and I wouldn't mind. Ads don't bother me. But stop running who-knows-whose code on my machine!
Envelopes
Brown coloured, you can smell them...