📰 New article from TorrentFreak
VPNs and Cloudflare Escape beIN’s €10,000-a-Day Piracy Blocking Penalties
https://torrentfreak.com/vpns-and-cloudflare-escape-beins-e10000-a-day-piracy-blocking-penalties/
### The “Reasonable Effort” Loophole
If you’ve ever tried to block a specific website, you know it’s a bit like trying to plug a leak in a dam with a single piece of Scotch tape. That’s exactly the headache beIN Sports is facing in France right now.
The broadcaster went to a Paris court demanding massive daily penalties—up to €10,000 per site—because VPN giants like NordVPN and Surfshark, along with Cloudflare, hadn’t “completely” blocked certain pirate streaming services. beIN wanted total digital lockdown, but the court had a different philosophy.
The verdict? The tech providers don’t have to be perfect; they just have to try.
The court ruled that these companies made a “reasonable effort” to comply, even if some pirate sites still managed to slip through the cracks. Essentially, the law requires a fair balance between protecting copyrights and allowing businesses to actually function without being held hostage by impossible technical standards.
The takeaway:
- Partial blocking counts: If a VPN blocks some sites via DNS, they’ve done their bit.
- No “perfect” requirement: Under EU law, intermediaries aren’t expected to guarantee a 100% success rate.
- The legal battle continues: While beIN lost this round, the broader fight over whether French blocking laws even comply with EU law is headed to the Supreme Court.