In March 2024, Vodafone, Más Movil, Telefónica, Orange and Digi were directed by Commercial Court No. 8 in Barcelona to report access to LaLiga football (soccer) programming from illegal sources that is consumed via Web and mobile apps in the hands of the general public. ISPs are to identify those consumers to LaLiga.
In September, LaLiga’s Tebas reported at a conference that LaLiga had ‘eliminated’ apps in Android and Apple appstores which were running in more than 1.1 million devices, accounting for more than five million downloads.
Some history
According to a March letter from LaLiga’s president Javier Tebas Medrano, posted to X (former Twitter), identifying data includes the consumer’s name, IP address, address of the line through which the user connected to the illegal source, and the consumer’s date and time of access. LaLiga also requested the IP addresses and ports of the servers, and the times of the consumer’s requests to those servers.
In July, a further court order, reported by the Spanish journal Xataka Movil, authorized ISPs to scrape consumer-identifying information from an app called AceStream, which enables consumers to access the illegal sources; beginning with the 2024-25 football season that commenced in mid-August. AceStream directs users to illegal streams and does not host the content itself.
Now, in December, 2024, LaLiga has begun to notify the consumer that he or she has been detected and requested a ‘settlement’ fee of €261.65 to avoid prosecution. In June, LaLiga had threatened to collect a ‘settlement’ of 450 Euros from the consumer. But if consumers pay the settlement, they are de-facto admitting to copyright infringement, which carries its own penalties under law.
Anti-piracy tactics have evolved, may be flawed
This is the latest in a series of moves by LaLiga that began in 2023 when a court required Spanish ISPs to shut down illegal streaming sites within hours of being notifified. Later in 2023, a second decree required blocking of illegal streams from torrent sites. ISPs must monitor a list of blocked sites that is updated weekly.
However, soon after the March letter was sent by LaLiga (linked above), the Judiciary office in Barcelona issued a statement clarifying that the order applies only to those users who re-transmit the signal to third parties for profit, and not those who simply access the illegal streams for their own use. Another source opined that LaLiga is out of bounds because football is “not a content protected by the Intellectual Property Law,” as a dissemination of cultural works.
Further reading
LaLiga already has the support of the judges to track users: it will identify the IP of those who watch football through AceStream. Article. December 19, 2024. Xataka
LaLiga sending warning letters to private users over AceStream use. Article. December 18, 2024. Telecompaper
LaLiga searches for more than a million mobile phones in Spain with pirated applications to watch football. Article. September 23, 2024. Marca, Editorial Unit Sports Information, S.L.U.
An expert lawyer explains what to do if we receive the 450 euro letter from LaLiga for watching IPTV. Article, June 27, 2024. Genbeta.
A commercial court in Barcelona agrees to identify “cardsharers” that re-diffuse to third parties the signal of soccer matches owned by LaLiga and make profit from it. March 11, 2024. Communication Judiciary. General Council of the Judiciary, TSJ Catalunya (Spain)
“The order says what it says…” Social media post by Javier Tebas Medrano, President of LaLiga. March 11, 2024. Posted to X (Former Twitter)
LaLiga is not going for IPTV users at the moment, but there are risks. Article. March 8, 2024. Genbeta
LaLiga and Movistar blocking torrent sites as well as streaming platforms. Article. August 24, 2023. Telecompaper
Why it matters
LaLiga must navigate sensitive issues of consumer privacy. Efforts by LaLiga to obtain consumer details may be an attempt to bypass European privacy laws. Opinions are many, but a final determination is still a work in progress with some uncertainty. LaLiga also has an earlier history of taking action against business establishments that present LaLiga programming illegally.
