- La Liga has asked the European Commission to add four major VPNs to the EU’s Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List
- The request targets NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN
- La Liga claims third-party affiliate marketing promotes the circumvention of court-ordered blocks
La Liga's war against illegal streaming has escalated once again, with the Spanish football league formally asking the European Commission to place four of the world's most popular VPN providers on an official piracy watch list.
As first reported by TorrentFreak, in a 14-page submission to the EU regarding the upcoming 2027 Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List, La Liga took aim at NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark. The league argues that these providers are benefiting from third-party affiliate marketing guides that actively instruct users on how to bypass geo-blocking restrictions to stream live matches.
While La Liga stresses that it does not take issue with VPN technology itself, the sporting giant believes that this type of third-party promotion strips the tools of their status as neutral technical intermediaries. If La Liga succeeds, everyday users relying on the best VPN to protect their online privacy could face an uncertain regulatory landscape in Europe.
TechRadar has reached out to NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN, and ExpressVPN for comment on La Liga's latest allegations and will update this article with their responses.
NEW: Leave No Trace — A weekly newsletter on digital privacy and online surveillance.
Leave No Trace investigates the companies and governments putting our digital freedom at risk — and the people fighting back.
📩 Subscribe now to get every edition delivered to your inbox every Friday, launching this September.
A growing battleground for VPN users
The submission explicitly targets tutorials published by publishers and influencers who earn a commission from VPN sales.
According to La Liga, these online guides explain how to connect to foreign servers to access free or discounted football broadcasts. While not inherently tied to illegal pirate streams, La Liga argues this practice harms the territorial exclusivity of its expensive broadcast licensing deals.
The football league's request also points the finger at affiliate pages that explicitly name known pirate streaming platforms, allegedly showing users how to bypass court-ordered blockades.
"This request is based not on the provision of VPN services as such, but on the commercial exploitation and active promotion of their ability to circumvent court-ordered blocking measures," La Liga’s document reads.
LaLiga’s chaotic history with VPNs in Spain
This latest push to involve the European Commission is just the newest chapter in LaLiga’s aggressive anti-piracy crusade, which has already caused widespread disruption.
Earlier this year, LaLiga's sweeping anti-piracy efforts led to over 500,000 websites being wrongly blocked in Spain, breaking parts of the internet and causing chaos for users relying on legitimate online services. The league has also found itself increasingly in conflict with major tech infrastructure providers like Cloudflare.
In February, a Spanish court issued an ex parte order requiring NordVPN and Proton VPN to block illegal football streams in Spain. The court controversially concluded that the providers actively advertised their ability to bypass geo-restrictions. However, both VPN firms quickly fired back, stating that they had never even been formally notified of the legal action.
The situation took another twist in May when NordVPN won a crucial legal battle over LaLiga piracy fines. The court ultimately refused to issue fines for non-compliance, accepting that the targeted IP addresses of pirate streams changed too frequently to enforce a permanent block.
With a recent EU study proposing 30-minute takedowns of illegal streams across DNS resolvers and VPNs, the pressure on privacy tools is steadily mounting.
As La Liga expands its fight to the broader European stage, the foundational right to internet privacy and secure browsing could become the ultimate casualty.
