Spanish LaLiga and VPN providers ProtonVPN and NordVPN seem to be headed for a legal dispute, after LaLiga published on Tuesday that they had been granted precautionary measures against NordVPN and ProtonVPN, two of the largest VPN providers, which will be forced to block certain IP addresses in Spain during the football matches.
However, Proton VPN issued an statement saying that they have not been notified in any way and were not given the opportunity to defend themselves, therefore making LaLiga's claims "procedurally invalid under fundamental principles of due process".
<social>https://x.com/protonvpn/status/2023737986899472551?s=48</social>
LaLiga, however, is prepared to fight them, as they claimed on their statement today that the precautionary measures against ProtonVPN and NordVPN were given by the judge in the Commercial Court of Córdoba "inaudita parte", meaning "without hearing the other party", as a request from LaLiga, based on the urgency.
<social>https://x.com/LaLigaCorp/status/2023714280231653832</social>
ProtonVPN and NordVPN now have the right to challenge the measure in court, but in the meantime are legally forced by LaLiga to block the access to certain IPs in Spain, as a measure to fight piracy, because VPN systems are used to access geoblocked content, including piracy sites. The Court in Córdoba rules that VPN service providers are technological intermediaries and must be subject to the European Digital Services Regulation "if there are infringements under their infrastructures."
LaLiga goes further than ever in their fight against piracy
LaLiga proudly says that this judicial decision "recognizing the responsibility of these technological intermediaries in the process of piracy of LaLiga matches", and say that this is a pioneer measure worldwide "due to the dynamic nature", but similar to others in France, which also puts on VPN provides responsibility for piracy.
This is another step further in LaLiga's fight against piracy, which often sees dozens of Internet sites based on Cloudfare (a company that provides stronger cybersecurity services) stop working in the days where football matches are played, as entire Cloudfare servers are taken down to stop illegal broadcasting sites, without caring about collateral damage.