German digital publishing house Axel Springer has banned readers who use adblockers from reading its Bild tabloid website in a move to prevent the depletion of online advertising revenues.

Visitors to Europe’s top-selling tabloid will be instructed to switch off their adblocker or pay €2.99 ($3.40) monthly to browse the Bilde.de site. According to a statement released on Tuesday 2 October, those who do not pay or turn off their adblocker will not be able to see any content on the website.

A study by Adobe and PageFair showed that 200 million people used ad blockers in 2014, up 40% on 2013, resulting in $22bn ad revenue lost to the industry.

Axel Springer, which received over €1.5bn ($1.72bn) from advertisers and circulation last year, changed its Bild site to “freemium” about two years ago with users paying €4.99 ($5.71) per month for exclusive interviews, stories and photos.

Bild had 265,000 subscribers at the end of June, generating around €20m ($22.89m) in annual sales.

This announcement comes after the publishing house lost a court case last month against German software firm Eyeo which makes the Adblock Plus browser.