La Liga scores victory over VPNs in football piracy fight
La Liga escalated their battle against football piracy on Tuesday as a Spanish court granted precautionary measures against two VPN services.
The Spanish top flight said in a statement that they and multinational telecommunications company Telefonica had been informed of judicial decisions ordering NordVPN and ProtonVPN to block IP addresses used for illegal streaming of La Liga matches.
La Liga heralded the measures, which are not subject to appeal, as "unprecedented in Spain and pioneering worldwide".
The statement said the court orders recognise VPN (Virtual Private Network) service providers as "technological intermediaries falling under the scope of the European Digital Services Regulation", and are thus obliged to prevent "the commission of infringements through their infrastructures".
Last year French courts ordered VPNs for the first time to block illegal sports streaming sites, a decision Canal+ and the LFP (Professional Football League) described as "a turning point" in the fight against piracy.
La Liga have been fighting against football piracy for years in various forms, and in January said they would offer football fans in Spain 50 euros ($59) for providing tip-offs about venues showing football illegally.
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