If you typed the name of one of these platforms into a search engine, it should soon become much more difficult to stumble upon. Sixteen domain names are in the immediate sights, but the decision, noted by UniversFreeboxalso plans to anticipate smart people who change addresses along the way. New sites reported may also be blocked.
Google and Microsoft ordered to act within three days
Canal+ has a few reasons to step up. The group exclusively holds the broadcast rights to the 380 Premier League matches for the 2025-2026 season, from August 15, 2025 to May 24, 2026. A concrete contract signed with the Football Association Premier League. Problem: while subscribers pay their dues, matches find themselves broadcast live for free on a host of sites accessible from France.
Faced with these wild retransmissions, the channel chose the legal option. During the procedure, Google attempted to challenge the ability of certain Canal+ group entities to act, believing that they did not directly hold the necessary rights. Argument dismissed by the court, which noted the existence of serious and repeated infringements of the exclusive audiovisual exploitation rights and related rights invoked.
The message is very clear: search engines must act quickly. Google and Microsoft have three days after notification of the judgment to put in place the necessary technical measures. The blockage will remain in effect until the end of the 2025-2026 season. And it applies almost everywhere: mainland France, overseas… except in New Caledonia, French Polynesia and the Wallis and Futuna Islands.
This decision does not come out of nowhere. At the beginning of February, the same court had already put pressure on two VPN heavyweights, NordVPN and Surfshark. They too were forced to filter access to sixteen illegal IPTV platforms broadcasting in particular the English championship. Justice then relied on article L. 333-10 of the Sports Code, which governs the fight against the illicit broadcast of sports competitions. VPNs are considered essential technical intermediaries: they cannot just watch the streams pass.
Both services obviously protested. Blocking domains, they say, would betray their promise of anonymity. And then, they add, this type of measure would only be a bandage on a wooden leg: pirate platforms regularly change addresses, and workaround solutions circulate at high speed. And the phenomenon is growing. Illegal IPTV is attracting more and more Internet users, attracted by offers offering thousands of channels and premium content for a few dozen euros per year.
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