- A French court has given new orders against five popular VPN services to block more hacked sites illegally broadcasting live sporting events
- Streaming Giants Canal + and Bein raised requests on July 18, 2025 against NordVPN, Proton VPN, Cyberghost, Surfshark and ExpressVPN
- A historic decision in May ordered the same VPNs to block access to more than 200 pirate areas
France continued to tighten its grip on online hacking this summer with another series of legal orders for certain Household names in VPN.
Five of the best VPN suppliers on the market at the moment, once again, found themselves under the spotlights of the Paris Judicial Court with requests to block sites offering live sports flows.
As Torrentfreak reported, the world sports broadcaster BeIN Sports France has raised a successful demand for NordVPN, Proton VPN and Cyberghost to block seven areas hosting WTA tennis flows.
While NordVPN, Proton VPN, Cyberghost, Surfshark and Expressvpn must now be compared to their clients with five web areas showing Formula 1 after complaints from the Dispute Rights of the Canal +country.
These orders follow a historic decision in May, which forced the same VPN companies to block access to more than 200 pirate areas. An action which, according to the VPN industry, has created “a dangerous precedent”.
New French VPN blocking orders
The decisions of the court rendered on July 18, 2025 apply the blocking of these sites until the end of their 2025 season. For F1, it is scheduled for December 7, 2025. For WTA tennis, the judge ruled until November 10, 2025.
Canal + First shared plans to target the use of VPNs in an climbing of anti-piratic tactics in February. This came after the streaming giant continued a successful legal action against the DNS services in 2024.
Quick advance until May 2025, and with two cycles of illegal streaming blocks already to its credit, it seems likely that the official French banners are not yet finished.
With Bein Sports who has now followed the plunge, and by obtaining his way in court, we will surely see more services paid on board to protect their investments in the rights to disseminate live sporting events.
Are VPNs backwards?
By discussing Techradar in May, the VPN industry has raised many concerns about France’s blocking orders, including a potential technical difficulty in responding to these requests.
All targeted services, in fact, are known to operate in the context of VPN policies without strict Logarition. This means that they do not record any activity or other data related to users.
A NordVPN spokesperson told Techradar at the time that the team still assessed how to identify customers in French territories while preserving the services of services.
However, these complaints were filed by the Paris court, which rejected “the reasons for inadmissibility” raised by all VPN suppliers on July 18.
The court even rejected the possibility of reference to the EU court issued by ExpressVPN and Cyberghost, leaving the VPN companies seeming without an escape route.
We have approached the VPN suppliers for more clarification on the issue, but we are still waiting for an answer at the time of the editorial staff.
