Adblock Plus wins another legal battle with German publishers

The company behind the most popular adblocking software has fended off a fifth legal challenge in Germany.

A Munich court has ruled against one of Germany’s biggest newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung, saying Adblock Plus and its “acceptable ads” programme were legal.

As part of the ruling, the court dismissed the newspaper’s argument that Adblock Plus was interfering in a contract readers were entering into with the newspaper that included accepting ads.

It is the last of a tranche of legal cases brought by German newspaper publishers and broadcasters against the company behind Adblock Plus, Eyeo. Germany’s largest newspaper publisher Axel Springer, business title Handelsblatt and broadcaster RTL Interactive are among that have unsuccessfully challenged the legality of the software.

Adblock Plus spokesperson Ben Williams said the ruling showed the court viewed adblocking as a challenge and opportunity rather than a threat.

“Look, we don’t want to pile on publishers here,” he wrote. We know that the transition from print to online is still a huge challenge. But we view adblocking much like the court: as an opportunity, or a challenge, to innovate.”

However, the ruling is unlikely to mark the end of legal challenges to Eyeo, and the case could go to appeal.

Eyeo has riled publishers concerned about growing numbers of people blocking ads because many are relying on digital advertising to compensate for sharp declines in print revenues.

The acceptable ads programme, under which Eyeo allows some publishers to run vetted ads and charges larger ones for the privilege, has proved especially controversial. Eyeo claims about 70 companies are signed up, but has not disclosed their names.

Adblock Plus has said it is setting up an independent group to oversee acceptable ads, but has failed to provide details about who will be represented on the body.

Last month UK Culture secretary John Whittingdale described adblocking as a “modern-day protection racket”, which was widely interpreted as a reference to the Adblock Plus whitelist.

Süddeutsche Zeitung had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.