ARCOM STEPS UP ACTION AGAINST SPORTS PIRACY

French regulator Arcom has published new guidance and model agreements designed to strengthen cooperation between sports rights holders and technical intermediaries in the fight against online piracy.

The documents are aimed at improving exchanges with search engines, alternative DNS services and VPN providers, as France continues efforts to make blocking and delisting measures faster and more effective.

Arcom said the direct loss linked to illegal sports broadcasts in France was estimated at €290 million in 2024, excluding lost tax and social security revenue. The regulator said professional clubs are most directly affected, but the wider sports ecosystem also suffers, including amateur clubs that benefit from France’s “Buffet tax” on sports rights revenues.

In 2025, Arcom said 1,845 services were delisted from search engines out of a total of 6,496 blocked services. It added that 81% of blocking requests sent to internet service providers were also sent to alternative DNS services, representing 5,263 notified requests.

Following the first French court rulings involving VPN providers in May 2025, Arcom has demanded the blocking of 598 domain names from those providers.

The new notice and model agreements are intended to support simultaneous and rapid anti-piracy action by rights holders and intermediaries.

Arcom has also developed a centralised system listing domain names subject to blocking or delisting demands linked to court rulings on sports content.

The regulator is inviting technical intermediaries to connect to the system, with an interface contract available to support implementation.

Source: broadbandtvnews.com