Germany's Top Court Overturns Ad Blocking Ruling, Creating Legal Uncertainty
In a significant turn of events, Germany's Federal Court of Justice has overturned a 2023 ruling that protected ad blocking software from copyright claims. The decision on July 31, 2025, creates new uncertainty around ad blocker legality in Germany's digital advertising ecosystem. The ruling represents a significant setback for Eyeo GmbH, the company behind Adblock Plus, in its decade-long legal battle with Axel Springer SE.
The Federal Court of Justice criticized the Hamburg court's assumption that ad blocker technology merely affects 'program execution' without touching 'program substance'. It noted fundamental problems with this reasoning and identified critical gaps in the lower court's analysis of website code protection under German copyright law. The case focuses on how browsers process website content through virtual machines using bytecode rather than traditional object code. The court highlighted technical aspects requiring deeper examination during case reconsideration, including browser-generated data structures like Document Object Models and CSS Object Models.
The ruling affects browser applications across the software sector due to shared technical components including HTML5, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript. German publishers report significant financial pressure from increasing ad block origin adoption. Axel Springer frames the legal challenge as essential for sustainable journalism funding without paywalls.
The Federal Court of Justice has sent the case back to the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg for fresh consideration. Axel Springer argues that websites constitute computer programs protected by copyright law, and when Adblock Plus blocks or modifies website code in users' browsers, this constitutes unauthorized modification and violates reproduction rights. The new ruling creates uncertainty around ad blocking legality, potentially impacting the digital advertising landscape in Germany.
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