German court rules Adblocking software programs are legal!

German court rules adblocking software programs are legal, a judgement that poses challenges to the revenues of global media groups. The case was brought by German broadcasters RTL and ProSiebenSat.1. saying: “ It did  not focus on software itself but alleged that the use of a list of acceptable ads- breached law on competition, copyright and market dominance.  The Munich court ruled that offering adblocking software was not a barrier to competition because individual users selected to install and use it and there is not abuse of market dominance as the popularity of adblocking software is decided by the market of internet users.

Eyeo said “ the latest ruling was a victory for every internet user”. The popularity of adblockers comes as broadcasters are moving to distribute their programmes online, and also in vesting several tens of millions of dollars in YouTube channels that funded by ads.

German start-up Eyeo’s Adblock plus, has become an essential and popular free extension on Chrome and Firefox browsers, to Surf the web without annoying ads and block tracking, malware domains, banners, pop-ups and video ads – even on Facebook and YouTube, is threatening the $120bn online advertising market. According to EYEO, it software has been downloaded more than 400m times worldwide.  Microsoft, Amazon and Google have all paid, Eyeo to stop blocking ads on their sites.