On 31 July 2025, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) issued its decision (decision of 31 July 2025 – I ZR 131/23) in the long-running dispute between Axel Springer and Eyeo (Adblock Plus), referring the case back to the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg for further examination. (Our previous blog, Germany: Copyright and ad blockers, summarises the earlier stages of this litigation.)
At the heart of the case is the copyright status of browser-generated data structures – specifically DOM and CSSOM trees – in the context of ad blocking technologies.