AdBlock Plus developer Eyeo appoints commission for whitelist management

Eyeo, the German company behind the popular AdBlock Plus, wants to appoint an independent committee to review whitelist applications and keep their standards up to date. At the moment, the company still does this itself. It is not known which parties will end up in the committee.

It is the intention that the committee manages the whitelist as an independent party. This means that the committee sets and updates the standards and also determines which ads are whitelisted and which are not. Eyeo argues that this should make the acceptable ads program “completely independent” and “capable of keeping up with the rapidly changing forms of online advertising.” The company does not go into detail about which parties would be involved. The committee must be appointed and active in 2016.

The whitelist standards, according to Eyeo, have been developed in collaboration with developers, publishers, users and advertisers and translate into “reasonable and non-intrusive” advertising. Internet advertising that adheres to these standards may be whitelisted. According to the company, every request will be posted on its forum, where users can provide comments and criticism. Eyeo ultimately decides for itself which advertising is acceptable and which is not.

At the same time, however, reports are circulating that companies like Google and Amazon have had to pay money to get their ads whitelisted. Eyeo states that these are ‘administration costs’ and that there is no payment for the whitelisting. Nevertheless, the companies are contractually prohibited from disclosing details of the agreement with Eyeo. These contracts also apply under the new commission.

Eyeo recently won a lawsuit against German publisher Axel Springer. Axel Springer, who is also the publisher of the German newspaper Bild, took Eyeo to court because according to the publisher it is “the constitutional right of the media to advertise”. Eyeo won the lawsuit, but Axel Springer plans to appeal.