Germany sets 81.5% piracy threshold — sites above it face blocking

A regional court in Cologne has issued a landmark ruling that sets a clear threshold for classifying websites as piracy platforms. According to the January 2025 decision, a site is considered a "systematic infringer" of copyright if more than 81.5% of its content is illegal.

The case was handled in a default judgment against the portal NOX, whose operator never contested the lawsuit. Based on the ruling, the site was subsequently blocked by internet service providers in Germany.

The Clearingstelle Urheberrecht im Internet (CUII), an organization dedicated to copyright enforcement, explained to TorrentFreak that the 81.5% figure is not a fixed statutory limit. Instead, it emerged from a "proportionality test" developed by the Federal Court of Justice. Under this test, a website is blocked when illegal content "so clearly dominates" that the blocking affects only a negligible portion of legal material.

CUII further clarified that the decisive factor is not the exact percentage but whether the site operates under a business model fundamentally based on copyright infringement. Adding legal content to such a platform's library would not change its core nature as a piracy site.

According to TorrentFreak, since 2025, German authorities have analyzed and subsequently blocked several websites using this legal framework. The ruling sets a precedent for future cases, giving rightsholders a clearer benchmark for proving that a site is primarily dedicated to piracy. The approach is seen as a pragmatic balance between protecting intellectual property and avoiding over-blocking of legitimate content. The decision also highlights the growing use of default judgments in cross-border copyright enforcement, as many site operators remain anonymous or fail to appear in court.