France Mulls Instant IPTV Blocks, €750K Fines & New Piracy Crime of ‘Incitement’

Regardless of club, region or country, football fans across Europe have been warned for years about the potential for financial crisis.

With rising prices for those who love the stadium experience, and a similar picture for those burdened with rising costs while juggling multiple subscriptions at home, awareness among fans is already typically high.

Commentary from those within French top tier football indicates a sport in crisis. Panic spread like wildfire last month when a multi-million-euro dispute between DAZN and Ligue 1 boiled over in public and almost immediately raised the specter of a financially paralyzed ecosystem.

The dispute still isn’t settled, but after DAZN reportedly paid an estimated €70 million in licensing fees owed for February alone, one aspect of the current crisis was at least kicked a little further down the road.

Draft Law Aims to Tackle Sport’s ‘Structural’ Problems

Senators Michel Savin and Laurent Lafon presented a bill last week aimed at reforming professional football through recommendations spanning how the sport is organized, managed and financed. With sharp observations on remuneration at the top of the game, and suggestions of conflicts of interest, also at the top of the game, the senators appear unrestrained.

“Ligue 1 is suffering an erosion of its appeal and a decline in its value. It has been unable to secure a long-term broadcasting contract to guarantee its financial stability. The instability of broadcasters has led to a decline in the number of viewers, who are confused by the successive changes and exasperated by the need to buy multiple subscriptions to access all the competitions,” the bill reads.

“The proliferation of matches and competition from other audiovisual content, both sporting and non-sporting, creates an overabundance of content that challenges the balance of the football audiovisual exploitation rights market.”

The proposals run deep and even if the bill passes, pushback seems almost inevitable. During a press conference last week, it was made clear that doing nothing would lead to disaster.

“Professional football is a drunken boat that drifts with the wind, and it will inevitably run aground if we do nothing.”

Piracy in the Crosshairs

The bill predictably describes piracy as a major economic threat to the sport due to the top clubs’ dependence on broadcasting rights.

Figures for 2023 indicate a €290 million loss of revenue due to all pirate sports broadcasts, representing around 15% of the market. More recent estimates for football alone suggest a piracy rate of over 50%, that’s despite the introduction of dynamic injunctions and the blocking of 7,000 domains since 2022.

Amendments to Article L. 333-10 of the French Sports Code aim to address rising piracy rates through enhanced blocking capabilities.

One amendment envisions telecoms regulator ARCOM developing and controlling an automated site-blocking system “to ensure real-time blocking, during the live broadcast of a sporting event, of access to illicit broadcast sources.”

The bill states that these sources would include pirate services that had not been previously identified in a court order. In common with all blocking orders executed in France, ‘real-time blocking’ would be carried out by ISPs under the previously established voluntary agreement.

Any irregularities (i.e overblocking) would lead to a suspension of measures before the end of a live event.

Introduction of Specific Offenses

Clarity on what constitutes an offense and how a particular offense is likely to be punished under law, can be lacking in some jurisdictions. This is most evident where sentences for copyright offenses are perceived to be less punitive than those available for crimes like fraud, for example.

With amendments to Article 10, the bill introduces specific offenses based on the offense of copyright infringement and related rights provided for by the Intellectual Property Code.

The scope of potential punishments appears to leave prosecutors and the courts with plenty of room for maneuver. The overall aim, it appears, is to focus on suppliers and promoters of various kinds, as opposed to those who consume.

“These new offenses would not target users of illegal services. However, the acts of publishing or making available to the public piracy sites and services, or marketing subscriptions, devices or software providing access to such services, would be punished,” the bill reads.

Summary of Offenses and Penalties

Offense: The act of designing, publishing or making available to the public, for payment or free of charge, an online public communication service broadcasting a competition or sporting event, without authorization [from the appropriate rightsholder].

Offense: The act of habitually communicating or making available to the public, through an online platform, whether for a fee or free of charge, broadcasts of a competition or sporting event without authorization.

Offense: Manufacturing, importing, offering/holding for sale, selling, renting, making available to the public, or installing a device or software clearly intended to allow illegal access to [authorized] services for the purposes of exploiting exclusive rights without authorization.

Penalties: All of the above punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of €300,000. In the event the offenses are committed by an organized gang, penalties are increased to seven years imprisonment and a €750,000 fine.

Offense: The act of inciting by any means, including an advertisement, the use of an online public communication service, a device, or software, allowing access to a competition or sporting event without authorization.

Penalties: Punishable by one year’s imprisonment and a €15,000 fine.

Depending on how the measure is perceived (which probably depends on whether there is any visible enforcement), the final proposal encompassing advertising and promotion may be the one to watch.

At least when compared to the other measures, the financial component is quite low, which may suggest that advertisers or those who offer slots for ads on their own sites could be the most likely targets.

Clarity on the other offenses is useful but as a deterrent, it’s harder to gauge their usefulness. All have been treated as crimes previously and since most sites are operated from beyond French borders, local law may not be considered a particularly big threat.

The introduction and full bill are available here and here (French, pdf)

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.