French Court Orders Popular VPNs to Block More Pirate Sites, Despite Opposition

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📰 New article from TorrentFreak

French Court Orders Popular VPNs to Block More Pirate Sites, Despite Opposition

https://torrentfreak.com/french-court-orders-popular-vpns-to-block-more-pirate-sites-despite-opposition/

French courts are turning up the heat on VPNs — and it’s getting weird.

If you’ve ever used a VPN to dodge ISP blocks and catch a free Formula 1 race, brace yourself: Paris just ruled that NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, and others must block access to 13 pirate streaming sites — even if they claim not to log your data. The court’s logic? “You’re still the bridge.” Doesn’t matter if you don’t track users — if you enable access to pirated streams, you’re legally complicit.

The sports giants (Canal+, LFP, beIN) aren’t messing around. This isn’t just a one-off — it’s part of a rolling campaign since 2024, starting with DNS providers like Google and Cloudflare, now escalating to VPNs. The latest order covers the entire 2025/2026 football season and lets LFP add new domains on the fly. Think of it as a never-ending game of digital whack-a-mole — but you’re the mole.

NordVPN’s retort? “This is like trying to stop rain by blocking umbrellas.” They’re appealing, arguing it pushes users toward sketchy free VPNs and ignores the real culprits: hosting providers and ad networks. Fair point. But for now, French users will find these 13 sites mysteriously vanish — even if the VPNs don’t know who they’re blocking.

The bigger question? If France wins, will other EU countries follow? And will VPNs start packing their bags for less litigious shores? Stay tuned. The stream’s not dead — it’s just getting harder to find.

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