CMS successful for Adblock Plus against Axel Springer before the Federal Court of Justice

Cologne – The Federal Court of Justice has confirmed the legal admissibility of Adblock Plus. The highest German civil court thus has agreed to the assessments made by Hamburg and Munich Higher Regional Courts and is overturning the only partial conviction of Adblock Plus by Cologne Higher Regional Court. Even if Cologne Higher Regional Court did agree on the one hand to the legal admissibility of adblockers but was the only court in Germany to regard the business model of paid whitelisting at Adblock Plus as unlawful, the Federal Court of Justice has now followed all aspects of the arguments made by CMS.

"The case confirms that adblockers are a fact of life for the digital economy", said Dr Pietro Graf Fringuelli, Strategy Lead Partner. The Senate therefore shares the view held by Prof. Dr Udo Di Fabio who considers using an adblocker is covered by the freedom of negative information.

"This ruling by Munich Higher Regional Court strengthens the rights of companies to offer consumers products that enable them to take control of their digital privacy", said Dr Heike Blank, Litigation Lead Partner. "The advertising industry now has the task of developing user-friendly advertising models".

The Federal Court of Justice thus confirms the long-standing experience of the interdisciplinary team led by Fringuelli and Blank. CMS-Partner Fringuelli sums it up: "In times of disruptive business models, traditional companies, even in the media sector, must rise to new challenges rather than defend obsolete business models which no longer meet user interest."

In the view of Prof. Dr Russell Miller of Washington and Lee School of Law in the USA, a widely published researcher on German law and the subject of adblocking, German case law is in line with American law in this respect. Here the German legal provisions and the American legal provisions reflect similar values including respect for individual autonomy.

CMS Germany

Dr Pietro Graf Fringuelli, Strategy Lead Partner, TMC
Dr Heike Blank, Litigation Lead Partner, IP
Kai Neuhaus, Partner, Competition & EU
Antonia Witschel, Senior Associate, IP
Dr Patrick Ehinger, Senior Associate
Dr Karin Schmidtmann, Senior Associate, both TMC

Eyeo GmbH

Kai Recke, General Legal Counsel

Representation before the Federal Court of Justice

Axel Rinkler, Rechtsanwalt, Karlsruhe

Press Contact
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