The BREIN Foundation, a Dutch anti-piracy organization, has spearheaded several successes in the early months of 2025. In most cases, not only was the service stopped for new and existing customers, but the providers also had to pay financial compensation, at the expense of their wrongfully obtained revenues.
In two cases, a judge granted an ex-parte to BREIN, meaning that the IPTV providers had to cease their activities immediately, under penalty of fines. The customers of these providers were disconnected and will not get their money back.
BREIN also uses tactics that extend outside the courtroom to reach its targets. In one case, the landlord of a site with two physical IPTV sales points terminated their leases due to their illegal activities. Having a physical presence may give an air of legitimacy to illegal IPTV, making it all the more meaningful to confront them by physical means.
“We’ll catch them where we can catch them”
BREIN takes other paths when identification of the persons involved is not immediately possible. For example, in 2025 the websites of six Dutch online IPTV providers have been taken away. Four of these issues were settled via the hosting providers and the Dutch domain registrar (Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland). In the other two cases the operators of the sites voluntarily stopped after a summons from BREIN.
Even without a website, IPTV providers can market their services. For example, they use supply & demand sites, social media or only do business via messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook. In 2025 alone, five different IPTV sellers on Marktplaats have been tracked down and had to sign a cease and desist declaration and pay compensation.
A standard part of the cease and desist declaration is that they are obliged to cease their illegal activities on penalty of a high contractual fine if they make the same mistake again. A provider who wanted to stay under the radar by only trading via WhatsApp has also been identified and has signed a cease and desist declaration.
Original news release
BREIN continues to achieve successes against providers of illegal IPTV in 2025. Press release. May 15, 2025. BREIN Foundation
Why it matters
BREIN continuously investigates infringers such as IPTV providers and often makes trial purchases to investigate what is being delivered. BREIN’s experience is that a payment to such a provider certainly does not guarantee delivery of an IPTV service. In other words: in some of the IPTV trial purchases, the buyer is simply being scammed. That is of course the cost of doing business for the foundation, but BREIN would not proceed with a trial purchase if the ‘provider’ did not present itself as sufficiently credible. And that is why BREIN warns: there is a real chance that you will be scammed by an IPTV ‘seller’, because if a provider seems credible to BREIN, then that will certainly be the case for the average consumer.
