I got an email from Eyeo, "the company behind Adblock Plus, the largest Adblocker". They wanted to talk about "business potential associated with our Acceptable Ads initiative". Doesn't sound like a conversation I'd have if the program was free.

Google and many others are definitely paying in order to be on the whitelist. http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/over-300-businesses-...