- France issues another blocking order to five major VPNs
- VPNs must block access to 13 illegal football streaming sites
- This is the third ruling of its kind against VPNs since May 2025
A Paris court has ordered five well-known VPN providers to block access to illegal sports streaming sites.
The order, dated December 18, forces NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN and CyberGhost to restrict access to 13 piracy sites, ruling in favor of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP).
The ruling, as first reported by TorrentFreak this week, echoes a similar order issued against the same VPN companies last May, which required these services to block access to 203 domains linked to illegal sports streaming. At the time, the VPN industry warned that the move set “a dangerous precedent”, warning of a chilling effect on online privacy and security.
Those concerns seem well founded. Since the historic ruling in May, more VPN blocking orders came in June and July at the request of French broadcasters beIN Sports and Canal+.
What does the blocking order say?
Under the latest ruling, the five VPN providers must introduce “any effective means” to prevent access to the 13 domains from France within three days of the decision.
The measures apply during the 2025/2026 football season, which will end on May 24, 2026.
The list of affected sites may be expanded throughout the season at the request of the LFP, through the regulatory authority ARCOM.
Judge rejects VPN defense
The VPN providers raised several legal and technical arguments against the blocking order, which the judge rejected.
NordVPN and Surfshark argued that their log-free infrastructure prevents them from identifying users based in France. The companies warned that collecting geolocation data from real users would violate their contractual obligations.
The court responded that blocking access to illegal domains does not mean that the service must permanently store user information.
VPN providers also questioned the definition of “technical intermediaries” in article L. 333-10 of the Sports Code. The judge rejected this argument, identifying VPNs as key intermediaries in online piracy and holding them legally responsible.
According to VPN companies, blocking measures are also ineffective and easy to bypass, as users could turn to another VPN or DNS service.
What's next?
We have contacted the affected VPN providers to understand how they plan to comply with the order and clarify the implications for their users in France.
A NordVPN spokesperson confirmed to TechRadar that the company has already launched an appeal, arguing that blocking does not remove the content itself or reduce incentives for piracy.
“Effective piracy control should focus on removing the source of content, targeting hosting providers, cutting off funding for illegal operations, and increasing the availability of legitimate content,” NordVPN said.
The provider also warned that these orders unfairly target established paid VPN services and leave free alternatives largely untouched. “Free VPNs are typically harder to regulate, and since users looking to avoid paying for content are unlikely to pay for a VPN either, these services remain a loophole for hackers to bypass restrictions,” NordVPN added.
Surfshark previously told TechRadar that it intended to appeal the previous ruling from May. We anticipate that the provider will likely file a similar challenge to this latest order.
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