The noise of the engines resonated even in the courtrooms. On July 18, 2025, the Paris judicial court rendered a scathing judgment against several leading VPN service providers. The publishing company of Canal Plus (SECP), holding exclusive rights to disseminate the prestigious World Formula 1 championship, had assigned these companies after having noticed that their services made it possible to bypass blockages and access pirate retransmissions from the Grands Prix.
The decision, spotted by the informed, is final for companies NordVPN, Surfshark, Cyberghost, ExpressVPN and Proton AG. They are summoned from “Implement, at the latest within three days […] all measures to prevent […] access “ From French territory, to a list of five websites identified as illegally distributing competition. This injunction, which applies until the end of the Formula 1 season set for December 7, 2025, marks a new crucial stage in the war that the beneficiaries of sports hacks.
A defense wall that crumbles
Faced with Canal+, VPN suppliers had however deployed an impressive legal arsenal, trying to assert the incompetence of the French court, the non-compliance of French law to European law, or their own status as a passive technical intermediary. One of the flagship arguments of the defendants was that their services, which encrypt the connection and mask the user’s IP address, did not ensure “No transmission function” And could therefore not be required to participate in the blocking. A vision swept by the court, which considered that “The simple fact of serving as a bridge allowing access to the litigious sites fulfills the transmission function”. The jurisdiction has notably relied on the European Regulation on Digital Services (DSA), which explicitly targets VPNs as “intermediate services”.
Companies have also pleaded the disproportionate and technically complex nature of blocking measures, invoking their “log” policies (non-conference data). Here again, the court judged the arguments insufficiently supported, recalling that the suppliers remained “Free of the choice of technical modalities” To perform the decision.
A strategic victory for the beneficiaries
If Canal+ has not obtained the case on all of its requests, the request for the publication of the judgment on the VPN sites has been deemed “Disproportionate”the background of the backrest is a lot of right. The court recognized existence “Serious and repeated damage” To the right to the chain and confirmed that VPN suppliers, in the same way as Internet access providers, are indeed “people likely to contribute” to put an end to hacking.
For Internet users who have unlawful streaming, this judgment recalls that the anonymity promised by some VPNs is no longer a foolproof shield. For the beneficiaries, it is the confirmation that their strategy of widening the field of managers is bearing fruit, gradually transforming all the links in the digital chain into actors of the fight against anti-pirate. The chase continues.
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