The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has welcomed a ruling by the Paris Judicial Court against subscription-sharing platform Spliiit.

The ruling centres on Spliiit’s role in creating a marketplace for streaming subscriptions. The court found the company facilitated the resale of access to services including Apple TV+, Disney+ and Netflix by connecting subscribers with third parties, a practice it said breached the contractual terms governing those subscriptions.

ACE said the ruling confirms that Spliiit was engaged in illicit password selling, where commercial operators facilitate the unauthorised sale of streaming service login credentials to multiple users in return for commission.

The coalition stressed that the case was not about sharing passwords within a family, but about commercial exploitation of subscriptions in breach of platform terms.

The court found that sharing Apple, Netflix and Disney subscriptions with third parties solely for that purpose breached the contracts binding those subscribers.

Larissa Knapp, EVP and Chief Content Protection Officer at the Motion Picture Association, said services that turn subscription credentials into a marketplace “exploit creators, consumers, and legitimate platforms”.

The court also found Spliiit had misled consumers by claiming its service did not infringe copyright or violate platform terms of service.

ACE said the ruling supports its wider efforts to protect the legal market for creative content and reduce unauthorised access to streaming services.

“TV piracy remains a mass phenomenon with significant damage for media providers, media plurality and the public purse. We urgently need more effective tools to curb illegal TV use and protect media diversity.”

The UK High Court has reportedly approved a new “omnibus” site-blocking order allowing rightsholders to move more quickly against piracy services that change domains or branding to evade enforcement.

The order, welcomed by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), is designed to reduce the need for repeated court applications each time pirate operators switch websites or launch mirror services. The move comes as piracy operators increasingly automate domain creation and use more agile infrastructure to avoid blocks.

While the judgment itself has not yet been published, reports indicate it stems from a May 7 High Court ruling in Columbia Pictures and others v British Telecommunications and others, filed in late 2025. According to industry reports, the case extends existing UK dynamic blocking powers beyond specific domains and even beyond “pirate brands”.

Previous UK Section 97A Copyright Act orders required rights holders to identify individual domains for blocking. A 2022 extension allowed action against mirror sites and related pirate brands. The new order reportedly goes further, permitting action against “structurally infringing audiovisual piracy services” meeting defined criteria, without fresh applications for every new site or domain.

The MPA said the order reflects the changing nature of piracy operations.

“Piracy operators often respond by quickly moving to new domains, copycat services, or rebranded websites. That constant ‘hopping’ undermines enforcement and forces rightsholders, courts and intermediaries into repetitive processes,”

the association said.

The development is linked to wider MPA proposals presented to WIPO ahead next month’s Advisory Committee on Enforcement meetings. The paper argues that modern anti-piracy systems should involve a wider range of intermediaries including ISPs, search engines, VPN providers, DNS resolvers, registrars and CDNs. It cites evidence suggesting ISP site blocking reduces traffic to piracy sites by an average of 89%, with stronger results reported in markets including Italy, France, Brazil and India.

The UK move mirrors broader European efforts. France’s Arcom last week published new agreements aimed at speeding cooperation between rights holders, search engines, DNS operators and VPN providers, while Italy has expanded use of rapid blocking under Piracy Shield and intensified enforcement actions against sports piracy networks.

Italian authorities have dismantled a major streaming piracy operation centred on an application known as CINEMAGOAL, in a case that investigators say resulted in an estimated €300 million in losses to broadcasters and streaming platforms including Sky, DAZN, Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify.

The investigation, led by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza and prosecutors in Bologna, targeted what police described as a previously unseen piracy system. Unlike traditional IPTV operations based around illegal set-top boxes, the system used an app linked to foreign servers that illegally decrypted content streams.

Investigators said virtual machines operating continuously in Italy captured access credentials from legitimate subscriptions registered to fictitious users and retransmitted them every three minutes. The system reportedly avoided direct IP association, making detection harder for rights holders and platforms. Pirated subscriptions were sold for between €40 and €130 per year.

The operation extended beyond Italy. Working with Eurojust, authorities seized foreign servers holding decryption data and source code, while coordinated actions were carried out in France and Germany.

Italian authorities also uncovered use of traditional illegal streaming devices known locally as “pezzotto”. Around 1,000 identified users now face fines ranging from €154 to €5,000.

Andrea Duilio, Chief Executive Officer of Sky Italia, said:

“I would like to thank the Ravenna Financial Police and the Bologna Public Prosecutor’s Office for this significant anti-piracy operation, which demonstrates their growing effectiveness in combating even the most sophisticated technologies. Those who choose to stream content illegally not only line the pockets of criminal organisations with millions in profits, but also risk penalties and expose their personal data to theft and fraud.”

The case continues Italy’s increasingly aggressive anti-piracy campaign, particularly around sports rights. Earlier operations such as “Taken Down” and “Switch Off” shut down major IPTV services including IPTVItalia, migliorIPTV and DarkTV, with investigators claiming millions of users globally were affected. Those actions targeted illegal distribution of content from Sky, DAZN, Mediaset, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Paramount.

Italy has also introduced Piracy Shield, requiring rapid blocking of suspected piracy sources, although the system has faced criticism after accidental blocking incidents affecting legitimate services.

The latest action comes as regulators across Europe intensify anti-piracy efforts. On Thursday, France’s Arcom announced new measures aimed at improving cooperation between rights holders, search engines, DNS providers and VPN operators in tackling sports piracy.

French regulator Arcom has published new guidance and model agreements designed to strengthen cooperation between sports rights holders and technical intermediaries in the fight against online piracy.

The documents are aimed at improving exchanges with search engines, alternative DNS services and VPN providers, as France continues efforts to make blocking and delisting measures faster and more effective.

Arcom said the direct loss linked to illegal sports broadcasts in France was estimated at €290 million in 2024, excluding lost tax and social security revenue. The regulator said professional clubs are most directly affected, but the wider sports ecosystem also suffers, including amateur clubs that benefit from France’s “Buffet tax” on sports rights revenues.

In 2025, Arcom said 1,845 services were delisted from search engines out of a total of 6,496 blocked services. It added that 81% of blocking requests sent to internet service providers were also sent to alternative DNS services, representing 5,263 notified requests.

Following the first French court rulings involving VPN providers in May 2025, Arcom has demanded the blocking of 598 domain names from those providers.

The new notice and model agreements are intended to support simultaneous and rapid anti-piracy action by rights holders and intermediaries.

Arcom has also developed a centralised system listing domain names subject to blocking or delisting demands linked to court rulings on sports content.

The regulator is inviting technical intermediaries to connect to the system, with an interface contract available to support implementation.

“This court decision is a turning point in the fight against content theft in Germany. Livetv.sx has operated at scale for more than a decade, undermining rights holders and the wider sports ecosystem. By working through CUII and collaborating with partners such as the DFL, DAZN is demonstrating that coordinated enforcement can deliver meaningful results. This ruling protects the value of sport and creates a fairer, more sustainable market,”

“This decision is of great significance for the protection of rights, an area in which the Bundesliga has invested heavily for many years. We can now take more effective action than ever before against illegal streaming networks, in collaboration with international organisations such as CUII, law enforcement authorities and our partners. We thank all parties involved for their close cooperation and determined action in this case.”

“this is a landmark ruling against one of the largest international criminal organizations dedicated to audiovisual piracy. The investigation has been groundbreaking in exposing the inner workings of these structures and introducing new technological methods to the Spanish judicial system. At the same time, the case has revealed how digital piracy is intertwined with complex money laundering networks in various countries, using multiple channels to support and divert the enormous profits generated.”