Overview

• The Federal Court of Justice returned Axel Springer’s lawsuit against Eyeo’s Adblock Plus to the Hamburg Higher Regional Court for further factual and legal review.
• Springer contends that the adblocker unlawfully modifies website JavaScript, CSS and HTML code, infringing the publisher’s copyright and seeking injunctive relief and damages.
• The referral reflects unresolved questions about how the EuGH’s October ruling—allowing temporary in-memory code changes without copying—applies to browser extensions.
• Springer warns that adblockers cause multimillion-euro losses and threaten journalism’s funding as the publisher accelerates its digital-only transition.
• Eyeo argues the case is fundamentally about users’ rights to customize their browsing experience and maintains that temporary code alterations do not breach copyright.