France Orders Popular VPNs to Block Pirate Sites
A French court has ordered several major VPN providers to block access to pirate sports streaming websites from within France. The order targets NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and ProtonVPN.
The Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris issued the ruling on December 18 after a request from the French football league LFP, requiring these VPNs to block 13 specific domains linked to pirated sports streams.
The decision is described as dynamic, meaning additional domains can be added during the 2025/2026 football season. The court also treats VPNs as technical intermediaries under France’s Sports Code and rejected arguments that no log policies prevent compliance. NordVPN has filed an appeal and argues blocking is ineffective because pirates can shift to new subdomains.
