Uefa buoyed by Irish court order blocking illegal streams

European football’s governing body, Uefa, has secured an order from the Irish High Court that requires a series of internet service providers in the country to block access to IP addresses of servers which are being used to illegally stream its competition matches.

Uefa said the ruling affects the main Irish internet service providers, adding that the European Championships, Nations League, Champions League and Europa League were among the competitions being illegally streamed that now are protected by the order.

In January 2018, Uefa was granted an injunction by the UK’s High Court to force six internet service providers to clamp down on illegal streams of matches.

“We are pleased with the decision taken by the Irish High Court,” Uefa’s chief counsel for commercial and technology legal services, Seong Sin Han, said.

“This new measure builds upon the similar blocking order we have had in place in the United Kingdom for several years now.”

The main ISPs in Ireland include Eir, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone.

Uefa, the English Premier League and pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus International last week welcomed a court ruling in Rwanda concerning the piracy of their broadcast content. Canal Plus International is the French-language rights-holder for the Champions League and Europa League, along with the Premier League, in the East African country with the ruling concerning the operations of a channel entitled Victory TV.

The Commercial High Court of Kigali ruled against Victory TV, finding its grounds of appeal baseless and confirming an earlier decision from a lower court which had ordered the operator of the channel to cease broadcasts in Rwanda of Champions League, Europa League and Premier League matches. Following these decisions, the country’s regulatory authority, RURA, ordered Victory TV to stop broadcasting the competitions under penalty of having its broadcasting license suspended.

Uefa said today (Tuesday) that it “takes piracy extremely seriously and is implementing an extensive anti-piracy programme based on the latest technology available”. The Nyon-based body added that it is also “teaming up with its broadcast partners, internet players and other relevant stakeholders to combat the problem more effectively”.

In July, Uefa issued a request for proposals for anti-piracy services to protect its main competitions.