LALIGA is urging the European Commission to transition from non-binding guidelines to concrete legislation to combat live sports piracy. This call comes after a recent monitoring report from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) indicated that the EU’s 2023 Recommendation has failed to effectively curb illicit streaming.
According to the league, the EUIPO’s assessment confirms that online audiovisual fraud is still growing within the EU, especially during peak sports periods. They argue that voluntary measures and private enforcement are being outpaced by increasingly sophisticated pirate networks. Therefore, LALIGA believes a common, binding legislative framework is necessary for all Member States.
A critical issue highlighted in the report is the limited cooperation from technology intermediaries – including hosting providers, CDNs, proxies, and cloud services – when notified about illegal content during live events. These entities are described as “digital shields” that can obscure the source of illegal streams and undermine blocking orders. LALIGA has openly criticized some intermediaries, such as Cloudflare, and has directly addressed the matter with the Commission.
The Commission’s findings also note that reported cases of legitimate content being wrongly blocked are minimal compared to the total number of dynamic blocking actions taken since the Recommendation was issued. This effectively endorses the dynamic blocking strategies used by LALIGA and other rightsholders. However, the implementation of dynamic court-ordered blocking varies significantly across the EU. Some Member States have well-established systems, while others lack equivalent tools, creating "safe havens" for pirates, according to LALIGA.
In response, LALIGA and 36 other sports and audiovisual organizations have jointly appealed to the Commission for binding rules. These include clear takedown deadlines for pirated live streams and mandatory compliance for all intermediaries, from hosters and CDNs to reverse proxies, alternative DNS providers, and VPNs.
LALIGA reports that its current anti-piracy strategy has helped reduce piracy consumption in Spain by 60% in the 2024/25 season, supported by a series of court rulings. Nonetheless, it estimates that audiovisual piracy still results in annual losses of €600–700 million for professional clubs and the broader sports industry in Spain, impacting areas such as grassroots and women’s football and tax revenues. As stated by LALIGA, it is ready to continue working with EU institutions and industry stakeholders on real-time, cross-border enforcement, and anticipates that new European legislation will provide Member States with a unified framework for action against live sports piracy.