Piracy: Saudi Arabia targeted in a report by the European Commission

"Saudi Arabia was selected because of its global role as a regional transit country for counterfeit and pirated goods destined for the EU, and because stakeholders report high-scale satellite and online piracy and ineffective enforcement measures to tackle them," stated the European Commission in a report on 08/01/2020

The report defines 13 priority countries (see list below) in which the European Union will focus its action concerning the "protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries."

"An allegedly Saudi operator called BeoutQ currently makes available - without authorisation - content belonging to EU sport event organisers and EU right holders (authors and related rights holders) in the territory of Saudi Arabia, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as well as in the EU. Saudi Arabia has reportedly not taken sufficient steps to stop the infringement despite the fact that the satellite services of BeoutQ are being transmitted by the satellite (Badr-4/Arabsat- 4b) of the partly state-owned Arab Satellite Communications Organisation,…