On May 8, 2026, Sweden’s Patent and Market Court of Appeals (PMÖD) issued a verdict regarding two men behind the illegal IPTV service IPTV King. The court confirmed the Patent and Market Court’s verdict,
One of the defendants was given a suspended sentence and to pay approximately 2.7 million SEK (equivalent to about US$293,000) in damages to the plaintiff film companies. 2.5 million SEK (about US$271,000) was confiscated from the other defendant as proceeds of crime, as the court concluded that he earned this money through criminal activity.
The court stated that there is clear support that the man’s capital comes to a significant extent from IPTV King’s activities.
The trial
In late April, their trial was held at the Patent and Market Court of Appeal (PMÖD). One of the men was convicted by the Patent and Market Court (PMD) to a suspended sentence and to pay just over 2 million in damages to the plaintiffs, the film companies. Both the convicted man and the prosecutor appealed the verdict.
The other man was acquitted by PMD because there was not sufficient evidence during the indictment period. The court noted in the judgment that there are several circumstances linking the man to IPTV King before the indictment period, and that he received transfers from bitcoin addresses linked to the illegal service.
Organized crime
The links between IPTV King and international organized crime were clear in the case. IPTV King was a reseller of one of the world’s largest illegal IPTV networks, which was then called IPTV Stack (and later changed its name to Rapid IPTV) and was mainly administered from Spain.
The administrators of IPTV Stack were convicted in Spain last week. The network provided IPTV infrastructure and had over a million paying users worldwide, via almost a thousand websites. The organization is believed to have earned over €15 million (about SEK 137 million).
A number of persons in the Spanish case were also recently sentenced. One of the men was sentenced to prison and to pay over one hundred million SEK in damages and 80 million SEK in fines. Four other defendants admitted various crimes against intellectual property rights, the market and consumers, and in several cases money laundering. The case shows strong and substantial connections between Swedish illegal IPTV services and organized crime.
Further reading
Expected verdict i the IPTV King case. Press release. May 8, 2026. Rättighetsalliansen (Swedish Rights Alliance)
Trial in IPTV King and verdict in Spanish case against IPTV provider. Press release. April 24, 2026. Rättighetsalliansen (Swedish Rights Alliance)
Spain: Football piracy network dismantled. Reached over 2 million across 13 countries, 3 continents. Article. April 21, 2026. by Steven Hawley. Piracy Monitor.
