End of Web Blocking: Court Overturns Blocking Order Against Pornhub & Co.

In the long-standing legal disputes over internet blocking of pornographic content, the Neustadt an der Weinstraße Administrative Court has delivered judgments that call into question the previous practice of German media supervision. With decisions made public on January 13, the court overturned the DNS blocks against porn websites of the Aylo group (Ref.: 5 K 475/24.NW and others) ordered by the Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate in April 2024.

The judges thus fully upheld the lawsuits filed by internet provider 1&1 and the Aylo group (formerly Mindgeek), which includes major players like Pornhub and YouPorn. The media regulators argued that the platforms violated the Interstate Treaty on Youth Media Protection (JMStV) due to insufficient age verification systems. However, the Neustadt judges consider this to be a national unilateral action that is inadmissible under European law.

DSA Regulates

The fundamental basis for these judgments is the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). The 5th Chamber of the Administrative Court clarified that there is now a uniform, fully harmonized regulatory framework for youth media protection on the internet at the EU level, which largely supersedes national special provisions. Since the DSA already provides for comprehensive due diligence obligations to protect minors, German authorities lack a legal basis to take action against providers in other EU countries based on the JMStV. The principle of primacy of EU law means that the instruments of state media authorities have become blunt in a digital world without internal borders in this matter.

Another pillar of the ruling's reasoning is the country of origin principle. It states that providers of digital services are generally only subject to the laws of the member state in which they are established – in this case, Cyprus. Although EU law allows for exceptions under strict conditions, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has recently raised the hurdles for these. The judges in Neustadt emphasized that blanket, abstract-general laws like the JMStV are not sufficient to restrict the free movement of services. This shift in competence is particularly evident with service providers classified by the Commission as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs). The judges clarified that the jurisdiction of German supervisors has effectively expired here, as the EU Commission has already initiated its own proceedings against such industry giants.

End of the Bouncer Role

The ruling marks a turning point and contrasts with earlier decisions by other courts that often approved web blocks in expedited proceedings. The Munich Administrative Court and the media regulators in Berlin-Brandenburg had accused Aylo of lacking "compliance" and upheld blocks. Neustadt, on the other hand, follows the line of the Düsseldorf Administrative Court. This court already recognized at the end of 2025 that the rigid requirements of the JMStV are hardly tenable in view of the new EU legal situation.

However, this does not mean the end of web blocking in Germany. The court has allowed an appeal to the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate due to the fundamental importance of the matter. Nevertheless, the signal to regulators is difficult to ignore: The days when internet providers were used as auxiliary police against foreign websites are likely coming to an end. For providers like 1&1, who have been fighting against the technical implementation of these often ineffective blocks for years, the ruling is another interim victory.

(vbr)