Washington and Lee University School of Law Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons Scholarly Articles Faculty Scholarship 2018 The Legal Fate of Internet Ad-Blocking Russell A. Miller Washington and Lee University School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlufac Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Computer Law Commons, and the Litigation Commons Recommended Citation Russell A. Miller, The Legal Fate of Internet Ad-Blocking, 24 B.U. J. Sci. & Tech. L. 299 (2018). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarly Articles by an authorized administrator of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ARTICLE THE LEGAL FATE OF INTERNET AD-BLOCKING RUSSELL A. MILLER* ABSTRACT Ad-blocking services allow individual users to avoid the obtrusive advertising that both clutters and finances most Internet publishing. Ad-blocking's im- mense-and growing-popularity suggests the depth of Internet users'frustra- tion with Internetadvertising. But its potential to disruptpublishers' traditional Internet revenue model makes ad-blocking one of the most significant recent Internetphenomena. Unsurprisingly,publishers are not inclined to accept ad- blocking without a legal fight. While publishers are threatening suits in the United States, the issues presented by ad-blocking have been extensively liti- gated in German courts where ad-blocking consistently has triumphed over claims that it represents a form of unfair competition.