La Liga wins anti-piracy case in Russia

Moscow court ruling removes illegal streams from pirate websites.

La Liga has won an anti-piracy ruling in Moscow to remove its content from three Russian websites that have been illegally streaming Spanish top-flight soccer matches.

The domains mou.su, hdtennis.ru and liveball.ru were found guilty of showing pirated broadcasts of La Liga matches in Russia during 2020. In total, the websites accumulated 1.14 million visits per month.

The case was brought to attention by La Liga’s in-house anti-piracy department which filed the complaint to the Moscow City Court and built the case in collaboration with Russia-based digital media protection firm WebKontrol.

La Liga's current broadcast partners in Russia are the Telesport Group and public-owned sports network Match TV.

Melcior Soler, La Liga's audiovisual director Melcior Soler, said: “Every ruling against piracy is another step towards removing this illegal practice from the industry.

“Our global team is able to detect cases across the world and successfully pursue legal action, leading the fight against those who are trying to cheat the rights holders, legitimate broadcast partners and fans.”

The case represents La Liga’s latest victory over pirate broadcasters, following successful rulings in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Denmark, Senegal and Indonesia. La Liga also collaborates with Belgium soccer’s Pro League top-flight and motorcycling promotion Dorna Sports on tackling intellectual property theft.

La Liga is currently preparing for the return of its top-flight club competition on 13th June. The first fixture after the three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic is the local derby between Sevilla and Real Betis.