Op-Ed: “Geo-Blocking Isn’t Perfect – and That’s Okay: AG Rantos on VPNs and Copyright Borders in Anne Frank Fonds (C-788/24)”

Digital accessibility continues to test the territorial logic of EU copyright law. In his Opinion of 15 January 2026 in Anne Frank Fonds (C-788/24), Advocate General Rantos considers a question that is simple in formulation yet significant in consequence: whether online availability amounts to an unlawful communication to the public in a Member State where copyright still subsists, even though access is geo-blocked but can be bypassed using a VPN. His answer is a calibrated ‘no – but.’ He rejects the idea that online communications must be aimed at a specific national public to fall within EU copyright law. At the same time, he draws a firm line: effective geo-blocking precludes a communication to the public in the blocked State, even if circumvention is technically possible. The Opinion thus seeks to preserve the territorial fabric of EU copyright without allowing the most restrictive national regimes to project their effects across borders.