The industrial-scale killing of new-born male chickens in Germany could soon be banned following a court case.

In the farming industry, male chicks and some unhealthy female chicks are considered a by-product, while healthy female chicks are reared to become egg-laying hens.

Around 6 billion chicks are killed each year globally, according to estimates. Shortly after hatching, the males are separated out to be either gassed or crushed. But in Germany on June 13, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig will decide whether to ban this practice when it rules over a case between two hatcheries and the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

A lawyer for the German Animal Welfare Federation, Martin Wilmsen, told CNBC Tuesday that the case should set a legal benchmark by spelling out that killing male chicks is in contravention to the country's animal welfare act.

"It means that any authority in Germany will have to respect the sentence that says there is no reasonable cause for the killing," he said by phone.

One-day-old male chicks are typically killed either by gas or maceration. According to the U.K.'s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a grinder can kill the chicks within one second, but gassing can prolong the process by up to two minutes.

Wilmsen said the court case is less about how they are killed — as farmers in Germany do appear to be complying with the law — but more about the fact that the chicks are dying at all.

The 28 EU member states exported a total 960 million euros ($1.1 billion) worth of eggs in 2016, according to official figures. Germany was the third-largest exporter, accounting for 135 million euros worth and 16% of trade between member states.

In 2016, the German parliament voted against a Green Party bill calling for a ban on the killing of chicks, as lawmakers decided the economy would suffer if industrial hatcheries simply packed up and moved to another country. However, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, has since stated that chick culling is "intolerable from an ethical point of view" and must be abolished as soon as possible.