Google Must Testify as LaLiga Demands Criminal Liability For ‘Piracy Profits’

A court in Murcia, Spain, has ordered Google to testify in a criminal case concerning IPTV app, NewPlay. Football league LaLiga, whose matches were allegedly offered illegally through the app, previously called for the directors of Google, Apple, and Huawei to face criminal charges. LaLiga criticized the companies for failing to disable copies of NewPlay already installed on users' devices. Google and Huawei must now testify as 'profit-making participants' in an alleged piracy scheme.

google-ball LaLiga is following through on its promise to go after large tech companies that allegedly make piracy easier or more difficult to stop.

In recent weeks and with repeat performances over the weekend, LaLiga continued to block Cloudflare IP addresses to prevent IPTV piracy.

LaLiga says it enjoys judicial support to do what is necessary. Cloudflare believes that at bare minimum it should’ve been given the opportunity to be heard in the case. Since the company wasn’t invited, Cloudflare believes the injunction should be declared invalid.

As controversy over site blocking embroils Cloudflare, LaLiga is now fighting tech giants on at least two fronts. In a criminal case centered on an alleged piracy app, LaLiga accuses Google and Huawei of profiting from infringements allegedly carried out through it.

NewPlay: LaLiga Targets ‘Profit-Making Participants’

In a 2022 submission to the European Commission’s Counterfeiting and Piracy Watch List (pdf, translated), LaLiga said the NewPlay IPTV application had been downloaded from Google Play 900,000 times in 2021, in Spain alone.

newplay The league claimed that through the app, users were able to access M3U playlists. These files carry no infringing content themselves, but effectively point to locations where pirated audiovisual content (such as sports, TV channels, TV series, and movies) can be found.

The public text of LaLiga’s referral to the EC identified the entity ITECH SLU as NewPlay’s developer. LaLiga added that NewPlay was “under judicial investigation” but there was no mention of a lawsuit underway since 2020. Allegations of profiting from piracy through advertising and premium subscriptions were also destined for more distant parties.

In April 2022, local media reported that a judge had ruled in favor of LaLiga but the specifics and what that meant for the NewPlay developer was unclear. The focus instead shifted to LaLiga and an order obtained from the Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 1 of Cieza (Juzgado de. Instrucción Nº 1 de Cieza).

NewPlay was previously available for download from app stores operated by Google, Apple, and Huawei. The order obtained by LaLiga instructed the companies to cease all payments due to NewPlay for sales of its premium ‘ad-free’ product, and then end NewPlay’s operations once and for all.

Partial Compliance, LaLiga Demands More

Under the court’s instructions, Google, Apple, and Huawei reportedly removed NewPlay from their respective app stores. The removals had no immediate effect on users who already had NewPlay installed on their devices but LaLiga had already prepared for that. The court order required Google, Apple, and Huawei to disable or delete NewPlay to prevent future use on users’ mobile devices. That apparently didn’t happen.

Unhappy with the lack of compliance, in 2024 LaLiga called on the investigating judge to punish the tech companies’ directors. LaLiga says that the installed NewPlay apps still haven’t been remotely disabled but given the precedent that may set, LaLiga seems unlikely to let the matter go without a fight.

With support from Telefónica, Mediapro and rights group EGEDA, LaLiga wants to hold Google and Huawei responsible for pirated content reportedly made available via the NewPlay app.

An order handed down by a court in Cieza (Murcia) now requires executives from Google Ireland LTD and Google Commerce Limited to testify on their business with NewPlay, including how profits were generated and at what scale. Huawei is also required to appear, but no mention is made of Apple in the latest announcement.

An anonymous LaLiga source told ConfiLegal that the development is significant. It could set a very “important precedent, because the judge in a case against a pirate application considers that Google can participate, for profit, in the profits obtained.”

Then and Now

In the specific form it was made available for download on various app stores, NewPlay didn’t appear to contain pre-loaded playlists or links to copyrighted content, at least at the point of delivery.

That position was underlined by NewPlay’s legal team in a two stage defense. While acknowledging NewPlay’s ability to consume M3U playlists in a manner not unlike VLC, for example, they argued that NewPlay played no part creating the playlists or the media to which they linked. As a result, the developer couldn’t be held liable for users’ infringing conduct.

NewPlay’s second line of defense was based in EU law. In their own right, football matches and similar sporting events do not qualify for copyright protection since they lack various aspects of creativity required under law.

The exact details of NewPlay’s approach are unknown to us but in practical terms, a lack of copyright protection is easily overcome by ensuring other elements that do receive protection (graphics, logos etc) are an integral part of sports broadcasts.

LaLiga’s submission to the EC dated February 14, 2022, made no mention of the case or where it was heading.

newplay-1
Reports this week suggest that the NewPlay case began in 2021 when police located the app’s developer in Murcia, but that raises questions about the 2020 lawsuit, and the submission to the EC two years later.

And there are bigger questions in plain view.

NewPlay Still in Operation Alongside Similar Apps?

LaLiga told the EC that NewPlay operated from the website newplay.site. That domain doesn’t load correctly right now, but it appears it was working just fine at the end of January, if only for a short time. Despite its appearance today, the site may exist to support a mobile app and surprisingly seems to offer a NewPlay Android app for direct download, as search engines point out.

Other puzzling aspects include an entity branded as ITECH SLU appearing at the top of search results, linking to a page on Google Play with not one but three apps for download.

itech slu
One of those apps already has 100K+ downloads but whether it functions similarly to NewPlay, or whether it’s even made by the same developer, is hard to say with any certainty, and harder still without a live test; which is not going to happen.

Today’s piracy world is awash with imposters bearing fake apps, so that possibility can’t be ruled in or out, here or anywhere else. Sometimes it’s easier and safer to just walk away.