“Werbeblocker IV” ruling by the BGH – A milestone for the protection of online media and browser software

The “Werbeblocker IV” ruling by the Federal Supreme Court (BGH) on July 31, 2025 (I ZR 131/23, which is available here) that we secured for our client Axel Springer SE marks a turning point in the long standing legal dispute against the leading ad blocker software “Adblock Plus” from Eyeo GmbH in Cologne.

Our client Axel Springer claims software protection under Section 69a of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) for the website software used to create its online media. AdblockPlus manipulates this software in the user’s browser by suppressing control commands for retrieving certain content and overwriting formatting commands for advertising content with its own commands.

The Federal Supreme Court has now overturned the Hamburg Higher Regional Court’s ruling dismissing the action and referred the legal dispute back to the lower court. According to the findings to date, an infringement of the scope of protection of a computer program under Section 69a (1) and (2) sentence 1 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) and thus a violation of the right to altering within the meaning of Section 69c No. 2 sentence 1 UrhG and reproduction within the meaning of Section 69c No. 1 sentence 1 UrhG cannot be denied. In particular, the Higher Regional Court did not sufficiently consider Axel Springer’s argument that a browser is a virtual machine controlled by a website program as byte code. In its reasoning, the Federal Supreme Court quotes in unusual detail what we presented with the help of external experts.

This ruling is about more than just protecting the integrity of online media. It is about the question of whether at all and in what quality online journalism can be offered and used in the future – it is about freedom of information without paywalls. This is fundamental to democracy.

In addition, the case is of fundamental importance for the entire software industry. This is because all browser applications work with the same technical components, namely HTML5, CSS, PHP, and Java Script. This affects all cloud-based applications such as computer games, standard software, SAP, etc. The ad blocker trial will determine whether this future technology is protected by copyright or can be manipulated at will by third parties.