Cloudflare has initiated legal proceedings against LaLiga, the Spanish football league, due to its IP blocking actions. Cloudflare contends that LaLiga's actions resulted in millions of users being blocked from accessing websites unrelated to the alleged piracy. As reported by Broadband TV News, websites DaznFutbolios and RBTV77 were blocked last weekend following a joint operation by LaLiga and Spanish ISPs. These websites were accused of illegally streaming LaLiga matches.
LaLiga asserted that these pirate sites used Cloudflare's technology to mask their identities and circumvent security measures. These two platforms boasted over 400,000 unique monthly users in Spain. Cloudflare refutes LaLiga's claims, stating that the league's actions were misguided and left them no choice but to pursue legal action. "LaLiga secured this blocking order without notifying cloud providers, while concealing from the court the predictable harm to third parties and the public good. LaLiga’s actions pose a clear threat to the open Internet," Cloudflare stated.
Cloudflare's legal action aims to challenge the blocking order and establish the illegality of LaLiga's actions. "Instead of addressing Spanish users’ concerns about excessive content blocking, LaLiga has attempted to deflect with baseless claims against Cloudflare while doubling down on its unlawful blocking practices," the company added. Cloudflare hopes this legal challenge will deter future indiscriminate blocking and reinforce that rightsholders cannot prioritize commercial interests over consumers' right to internet access. Cloudflare, like most cloud providers, uses shared IP addresses, meaning thousands of domains share a single IP. LaLiga alleges that over 50% of pirate IPs distributing its content are protected by Cloudflare.