A Paris court has issued what is being described as the most sweeping anti-piracy blocking order in French history: internet providers, VPN services, and DNS resolvers have been ordered to block 35 websites distributing pirated sports broadcasts. The ruling comes in response to lawsuits related to Spanish football league LaLiga.
The scope of the order is unprecedented in France. Not only are the country's largest internet service providers affected, but alternative DNS services — including Google's 8.8.8.8, Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1, and Quad9 — must also comply. VPN providers explicitly named in the ruling include ProtonVPN, CyberGhost, and ExpressVPN.
The blocks are set to remain in effect until June 21, 2026, and may be extended to cover additional domains through coordination with France's media regulator ARCOM. The order represents an escalation in France's approach to sports content piracy, which has targeted streaming with increasing aggressiveness over recent years.
The court separately noted that LaLiga itself cannot be a direct plaintiff in French proceedings, as it is a Spanish organization without the French state delegation required by the French sports code. However, beIN Sports France successfully demonstrated that its exclusive French broadcast rights were being violated, as pirated streams displayed its branding.
Legal analysts note that requiring VPN providers and alternative DNS services — rather than just ISPs — to implement blocks represents a significant expansion of the technical enforcement perimeter. Courts are now acknowledging that DNS-level and ISP-level blocks are routinely circumvented and are seeking to close those bypass routes directly.
Why this matters for VPN users: This French ruling illustrates a growing global trend: authorities are increasingly targeting VPN services themselves, not just the content they help access. While this specific case concerns sports piracy, the legal mechanisms being established could be applied more broadly. ASMO VPN continuously monitors regulatory developments and maintains server infrastructure and protocols designed to ensure service availability even in complex regulatory environments.