At the request of Canal+, the Court of Cassation ordered several actors to prevent access to several IPTV sites and services used to illegally watch Champions League championship matches.
The war against sports piracy continues. As reported by Alexandre Archambault, lawyer specializing in digital law, on X (formerly Twitter) on October 17, Canal+ obtained the blocking of dozens of IPTV sites.
“Specializing in the live and delayed broadcast of sports programs”, including the Champions League which is held from July 9, 2024 to May 31, 2025, the television channel deplores that these sites broadcast matches even though it has acquired the rights on an “exclusive basis (…) for the 203 matches on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the event, with the exception of the final for which exclusivity will be shared with the company M6”.
The operators concerned
The Court of Cassation ruled in his favor on October 10, ordering several players to block access to IPTV sites. Google and Microsoft are particularly concerned for their search engines (Google and Bing). Their orders “to prevent, until the date of the last match of the Champions League championship (…) access to IPTV sites and services” identified in Canal+’s complaint, “as well as to IPTV sites and services not yet identified at the date of this decision.
This, “by any effective means”, indicated the Court of Cassation, mentioning, among other things, the dereferencing of the latter. The operators Bouygues, Orange, SFR and Free will also have to prevent Internet users from accessing these sites, as will several overseas internet service providers.
Senegal
