An interim order issued on May 7 requires Internet service providers to block sites providing access to illegal broadcasts of La Liga matches in France, at the request of the Spanish Football League.
For the first time in France, a foreign sports entity can block streaming sites and sites providing access to illegal IPTV services. This right was granted on May 7 by the Paris judicial court to the Spanish Football League (LaLiga) for matches in its first two divisions until the end of the 2023-2024 season. Until now, the measure taken had only been declared eligible for French entities and competitions taking place on French soil.
The interim order applies to Orange, Free, Bouygues Telecom, Outremer Telecom and SFR (Altice Group, also owner of RMC Sport). These Internet service providers must, within a maximum of three days, “prevent” access to the identified sites by “any effective means”. This can be done in particular by blocking domain names.
The decision also requires operators to block illegal sites “not yet identified at the date of this decision”. These sites can be reported by LaLiga to the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom).
Illegal streaming boosted by sport
This court decision is part of the application of article L333-10 of the Sports Code. This provides that the holder of audiovisual rights to a sports competition can “obtain all proportionate measures likely to prevent or put an end to” serious and repeated infringements in terms of piracy of sports broadcasts.
According to a report for the 2021-2023 period published at the end of April by Arcom, illegal live streaming is boosted by the piracy of sports competitions. The media and digital policeman explains this increase by the use “for illicit purposes” of virtual private networks (VPN) and IPTV services, not to mention the increase in misused uses of platforms like Telegram, X and Discord. Over the past two years, 3,370 domain names linked to unauthorized broadcasts of sports competitions have been blocked by the courts or following a notification from Arcom.
In January 2023, Arcom announced an agreement aimed at combating pirate broadcasts of sports competitions with the four major internet service providers in France and sports rights holders.
