Ad Blockers Permissible – At Least Under Competition Law

AdBlock Plus gives users the opportunity to suppress advertisements that are automatically displayed on websites, thus allowing them to enjoy the contents (e.g., journalistic texts, videos, etc.) without advertising. AdBlock Plus achieves this with a blacklist whose filter automatically blocks advertising. Advertisers are able to prevent the blocking by adding themselves to a whitelist provided by Eyeo. The inclusion in the whitelist is subject to a fee and to certain requirements in terms of quality to be considered as "acceptable advertising."

The majority of German (press) publishers, above all the complainant, see their business models at risk from AdBlock Plus and have been taking legal steps against the advertising blocker software for years, exhausting almost all legal options.