The VPNs will also have to block the pirate sites that transmit football

The referee decided in favor of the diffusers. As the informed reveals, it will no longer be possible to consider the sports content on websites that dispersed them illegally, even using VPN. This restriction follows a decision of the Court of Paris, seized by the Professional Soccer League (LFP) and the Channel+station.

The Court significantly indicates “the existence of serious and repeated attacks against the exclusive rights” of LFP and Canal+, according to the procedure report. On May 15, the two organizations had a favorable decision.

End of the VPN alternative

The VPNs were until then the magical solution to cope with the blockade of illegal transmission sites. The previous blocking campaigns have already been carried out by sports content diffusers.

In October 2024, Canal+ had already taken measures with the court to accelerate the closure of the IPTV service. Google and Bing search engines, as well as the main French operators, had to block access to several dozen online broadcast sites.

Soon, the rule must also be applied to the VPN: Nordvpn, Cyberghost, Surfshark, Expressvpn and Proton are particularly concerned. The latter are now forced to block access to almost 228 illegal distribution sites before May 18, 2025 according to the judicial report.

Temporary blockages

Now it will be more complicated to take advantage of certain competitions without subscription to the platforms. No more alternatives to Canal+ to see the champions and the first 14 league games. In the same way, it will take a Dazn and Bein Sport subscription, to see Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 (organized by the LFP) parties respectively.

However, these restrictions are temporary and will apply until the end of competitions. For example, the 25 sites that transmit Ligue 1 and 2 matches must be inaccessible at least until May 25, 2025.

These measures are pioneers since, for the first time, they question the responsibility of the VPNs, which have become a vector of illegal games online. After their first victory in the Court, the LFP and the LFP Média do not exclude repeating the blocking procedure later. They say that “they are already mobilized to prepare for the protection of the next season” in a press release.