La Liga wins court order, requiring NordVPN and Proton VPN to block illegal football streams in Spain — but VPN firms say they have not been notified

• A Sanish Court has ordered NordVPN and Proton VPN to block IPs transmitting illegal football streams
• La Liga can update the list of IPs in real-time during matches
• Proton VPN and NordVPN said they have not been formally notified yet

VPN users in Spain may soon face connection blackouts during football matches after a new court ruling granted LaLiga the power to issue blocking orders to major privacy services.

According to La Liga's official statement, the Commercial Court No. 1 of Córdoba has ruled in favor of La Liga and Telefónica, classifying VPN providers as "technological intermediaries" under the European Digital Services Act (DSA). The ruling specifically names NordVPN and Proton VPN, requiring the companies to block access to IP addresses detected transmitting illegal streams of LaLiga matches.

The "precautionary measure" allows for dynamic blocking, meaning LaLiga can update the list of banned IP addresses in real-time as they are identified. This grants the football league unprecedented speed in shutting down connections, but privacy advocates warn it creates a high risk of collateral damage where legitimate users, such as remote workers or privacy-conscious citizens, are swept up in the dragnet.

In a post on X, Proton VPN confirms that the company "has not been formally notified."

"Spanish courts, like all courts operating under the rule of law, are bound by procedural safeguards that ensure parties are given a fair opportunity to present their case before any binding judgment is rendered," wrote the provider.

Talking to Bandaancha.eu, NordVPN also said it has not been involved in any legal proceedings in Spain, deeming such an approach "unacceptable."

TechRadar has reached out to both Proton VPN and NordVPN for comment on this ruling and will update this article when we hear back.

The "Nuclear Option" against VPNs

This ruling marks a pivotal shift in anti-piracy enforcement. Previously, rights holders targeted the hosting sites or the pirates themselves. Now, the Spanish courts are targeting the tools used to circumvent those blocks.

The court's decision relies on the argument that VPNs are not just passive conduits but active "intermediaries" that facilitate copyright infringement. By classifying them this way, the court requires VPN firms to actively block access to IPs used to watch illegal football streaming sites during La Liga's matches.

Because the best VPN services often use shared IP addresses, where thousands of users might share a single server IP, there's the risk that blocking one "pirate" IP may instantly disconnect everyone else using that same server for legal activities.

A European Trend?

Spain is not acting in isolation. This move mirrors a similar crackdown in France, where the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) recently secured a court order requiring ISPs to block DNS access to pirate sites, which then escalated to pressure against VPN services.

The French ruling, handed down by the Paris Judicial Court, also targeted major providers including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark, ordering them to block access to specific pirate domains. However, the Spanish ruling appears to go a step further by requiring the blocking of the VPNs' own infrastructure (their IP addresses) rather than just asking the VPNs to block specific sites.

This follows a chaotic period for Spanish internet users. In December 2024, a Barcelona court authorized LaLiga to block IP addresses associated with Cloudflare, a major content delivery network. That "blunt instrument" approach reportedly caused widespread outages for legitimate websites and services that had nothing to do with football piracy, simply because they shared infrastructure with pirate sites.

With this new ruling from Córdoba, the scope for collateral damage has widened again. For now, users in Spain using NordVPN or Proton VPN may find their service unreliable during match times, regardless of what they are actually using the internet for.

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