đ° New article from TorrentFreak
ProtonVPN Fights French Pirate Site Blockades, But Court Rejects Overblocking Fears
Ever tried watching a live match on a âsecretâ stream, only to hit a VPN wall?âŻProtonVPN just found out the hard way that French courts arenât shy about ordering it to block pirate sites â and theyâve already won.
In late January Paris handed down two separate injunctions against Proton (the Swissâbased VPN). One targets 16 domains streaming Premier League games; the other goes after another 16 sites peddling TopâŻ14 rugby. The orders run until each season ends in midâ2026, and theyâre âdynamicâ â meaning any new mirror can be added on the fly.
Proton fought back with every argument in its playbook: jurisdiction questions, netâneutrality violations, WTO trade rules, and even the technical impossibility of blocking only French users. The court brushed each one aside as vague or unsubstantiated, noting no concrete evidence that a global blackout would result.
The verdict? Proton must block the 31 domains (one overlap) but wonât have to plaster the ruling on its site or pay Canal+âs âŹ30âŻk claim. Meanwhile, French rightâsholders are also pushing Google DNS and ISP blocks, so the battle is far from over â and Europeâs top court may be the next arena. Bottom line: if youâre using a VPN in France to dodge piracy filters, expect more âaccess deniedâ screens heading your way.