The world’s leading VPN providers have been ordered to block around 200 pirate site domains following legal action in France by Canal+ Group. The broadcaster argued that users of NordVPN, CyberGhost, Surfshark, ExpressVPN and ProtonVPN, use those services to access illegal football and rugby matches to which it also owns the rights. The VPN companies resisted on various grounds, but to no avail.
Article L. 333-10 of the French Sport Code enables rightsholders to request blocking measures against named pirate sites if they can demonstrate “serious and repeated infringement” of their exploitation rights. To prevent pirate sites from being accessed on French soil, rightsholders may request that “all proportionate measures” are implemented by any online entity in a position to help. The scope of Article L. 333-10 was always meant to be broad.
Källa: Major VPN Providers Ordered to Block Pirate Sports Streaming Sites * TorrentFreak