Ad Blocking and Whitelisting Revenue Model Declared Fair and Legal Once-and-For-All
COLOGNE, Germany & SAN FRANCISCO – Adblock Plus parent company eyeo GmbH announced that it has won a final Supreme Court ruling in its favor. This court decision marks the eighth consecutive favorable ruling for Adblock Plus.
“We are extremely pleased with the ruling in favor of Adblock Plus and against Axel Springer. We have fought successfully for the rights of every consumer to block unwanted advertising and control their own Internet experience as they choose – whether they use our products or any other ad blocker”
Today’s Supreme Court ruling confirms — just as the regional courts in Munich and Hamburg stated previously — that people have the right in Germany to block ads. This case had already been tried in the Cologne Regional Court, then in the Regional Court of Appeals, also in Cologne – with similar results. It also confirms that Adblock Plus can use a whitelist to allow certain acceptable ads through. Today’s Supreme Court decision puts an end to publisher Axel Springer’s claim that they be treated differently for the whitelisting portion of Adblock Plus’ business model.
Importantly, the judges ruled that the use of ad-blocking software and the employment of a whitelist that allows non-intrusive advertising is legitimate. Specifically, the judges decided that Adblock Plus does not breach the law §4a UWG (unfair competition), because it does not enforce aggressive business practices.
“We are extremely pleased with the ruling in favor of Adblock Plus and against Axel Springer. We have fought successfully for the rights of every consumer to block unwanted advertising and control their own Internet experience as they choose – whether they use our products or any other ad blocker,” said Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus and managing director of eyeo GmbH. “On behalf of every Internet citizen around the world, we WON.”
The Supreme Court decision is final, and cannot be appealed or challenged any further.
About Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is an open source project that aims to rid the Internet of annoying and intrusive online advertising. Its free web browser extensions (add-ons) put users in control by letting them block or filter which ads they want to see. Users across the world have downloaded Adblock Plus over 500 million times, and it has remained the most downloaded and the most used extension almost continuously since November 2006. PC Magazine named the extension as one of the best free Google Chrome extensions, and it received About.com readers’ choice award for best privacy/security add-on. #BlockBetter
Adblock Plus is a free browser add-on for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Maxthon and Opera for desktop users, and offers a free browser for mobile users on iOS and Android.
