Delay in EU-wide legislation to tackle live sports piracy ‘harmful to rights holders’

The European Commission has decided not to make an EU-wide law to curb online piracy of sports and other live events for now, after it conducted a public consultation earlier this year on how the issue of illegal live sports streaming should be tackled.

Instead, the Commission has issued a non-binding recommendation (16 pages/211KB PDF) on combating the issue, encouraging rights holders, hosting services and intermediary services to collaborate better on takedown notices to remove unauthorised retransmission of live sports events. It places the burden on EU member states and national authorities who have been encouraged to provide for blocking injunctions tailored to live events, not only against those who are streaming illegal content but also against intermediary service providers.

Intellectual property experts Tom Nener and Paulina Kasprzak of Pinsent Masons said that EU policymakers have missed another opportunity to provide clear enforcement mechanisms at a legislative level to allow sports bodies to fight broadcasting piracy effectively, such as regulations requiring online platforms to remove illegal live streams immediately.

“Those live sport organisers and broadcasters who had been hoping for an EU-wide law tackling the issue of online piracy of sports and other live events have once again been left disappointed,” said Nener.

He explained that broadcasters and live events organisers were hoping that the European Commission would propose sector-specific regulation that would clarify the concept of ‘expeditious removal’ of illegal content introduced by the Digital Services Act, and give a clear and tight timeframe for pirated streams to be taken down.

“The fact that the European Commission published a non-binding recommendation which merely encourages rights holders, hosting services and intermediary services to better collaborate in respect of takedowns does not go far enough to give rightsholders the tools they need to tackle piracy effectively,” said Nener. “Broadcast income is key to sport prospering in our society and piracy puts that income at risk. Legislation that provides clear and specific legal rights and procedures for rightsholders to rely on is needed to protect it. Particularly helpful would be legally binding timeframes within which takedown notices must be complied with,” Nener said.

The Commission said that it will assess the effects of the recommendation by 17 November 2025 and will only consider whether any EU legislation is required at that point

“Three years without any decisive action from EU policymakers appears to be an extremely long period of time during which rightsholders will continue to be harmed by piracy and billions will be lost in revenue. This is particularly concerning given that the popularity of piracy websites has been growing,” said Kasprzak.

More controversially, rights holders have also been encouraged to do their “bit” in combating the issue by increasing the affordability of their live content.

“The recommendation is controversial given that rights holders may wish, or need to, claw back the revenue they have been losing to piracy over the years as opposed to making access to their content cheaper,” she added.

The European Commission has been under mounting pressure from sport and other live events organisers, who have been calling for the European Commission to propose legislation that would strengthen their rights and enhance available enforcement tools by requiring online platforms to remove illegal live streams immediately.

It is estimated that piracy costs event organisers up to €28 billion in lost revenue each year. However, neither the EU nor the UK provide for a specific IP right that organisers can rely on, and the efficiency of the existing enforcement mechanisms against illegal live streams – which include injunctions and ‘notice and take down’ mechanisms – has also been the subject of criticism.