Piracy: LFP secures court-ordered measures against two major domain name registrars, "a first in Europe"

"On 13 May 2026, the Ligue de Football Professionnel and its commercial subsidiary, LFP Media, obtained a favorable ruling from the President of the Paris Judicial Court as part of their action against two major domain name registrars," the LFP announced on 22 May 2026.

This decision, a first in Europe according to the LFP, "orders the companies Namecheap, Inc. (USA) and Dynadot Inc. (USA) to implement measures aimed at preventing access to illegal streaming and IPTV websites identified by the LFP, which seriously and repeatedly infringe upon the audiovisual exploitation rights of Ligue 1 McDonald’s and Ligue 2 BKT," the body explained.

"The French courts have confirmed that domain name registrars are intermediaries that can effectively be called upon to remedy infringements of sports broadcasting rights. Until now, such measures had been obtained against internet service providers (ISPs), DNS resolvers, or VPN services. Extending these measures to registrars makes it possible to render domain names inoperative and prevent their transfer to other providers, thereby neutralizing…