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The European Court of Justice has ruled that VPNs are legitimate technical tools. VPN providers cannot automatically be held liable when users rely on their services to bypass geographic restrictions.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that virtual private networks (VPNs) are legitimate technical tools. Under the decision, VPN service providers cannot automatically be held liable when users employ their services to circumvent geographic restrictions, or geoblocking. At the same time, the court clarified that website operators and publishers are not required to implement impenetrable blocking systems. It is sufficient for websites to use geoblocking measures that reflect the current state of the art.
Anne Frank Manuscripts Trigger Copyright Dispute
The case was triggered by a free online scholarly edition of Anne Frank’s manuscripts, published by Dutch and Belgian research institutions. Because copyright protection for the works remains in force in the Netherlands until 2037 but has already expired in Belgium, the operators blocked access from the Netherlands with a message stating that the content was not available at the user’s location.
The Anne Frank Fonds, which holds the Dutch copyrights, argued that the restriction could easily be bypassed using VPN services. The ECJ rejected this argument, ruling that the possibility of circumventing a geoblocking system with a VPN does not make the measure ineffective.
Implications for Copyright Protection and Digital Privacy
The ruling establishes a precedent for copyright disputes across the European Union. It strengthens legal certainty for providers of privacy tools as well as for their users.
The court primarily recognizes VPNs as tools for protecting privacy rather than as services designed solely to facilitate copyright infringement.
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