- A Sanish court has ordered NordVPN and Proton VPN to block IP addresses carrying illegal football streams
- The League can update the IP list in real time during matches
- Proton VPN and NordVPN said they have not yet been formally notified
VPN users in Spain could soon face connection outages during football matches after a new court ruling gave LaLiga the power to issue blocking orders to major privacy services.
According to LaLiga’s official statement, the Commercial Court No. 1 of Córdoba has ruled in favor of LaLiga and Telefónica, classifying VPN providers as “technological intermediaries” according to the European Digital Services Law (DSA). The ruling specifically names NordVPN and Proton VPN, and requires the companies to block access to IP addresses detected transmitting illegal streams of LaLiga matches.
The “precautionary measure” allows dynamic blocking, so LaLiga can update the list of banned IP addresses in real time as they are identified. This gives the football league unprecedented speed in closing connections, but privacy advocates warn that it creates a high risk of collateral damage when legitimate users, such as remote workers or privacy-conscious citizens, are dragged through the network.
We have been aware of recent reports of legal proceedings in Spain that may affect VPN services, including Proton VPN. At this time, we were not aware of any proceedings that may have been in place before these reports came to light that have not been formally…February 17, 2026
In a post on X, Proton VPN confirms that the company “has not been formally notified.”
“Spanish courts, like all courts operating under the rule of law, are subject to procedural safeguards that ensure that parties have a fair opportunity to present their case before any binding judgment is handed down,” the provider wrote.
Speaking to Bandaancha.eu, NordVPN also said that it has not been involved in any legal proceedings in Spain, which is why it considers such an approach “unacceptable.”
TechRadar has reached out to Proton VPN and NordVPN for comment on this decision and will update this article when we hear back.
The “nuclear option” against VPNs
This ruling marks a fundamental change in anti-piracy law enforcement. Previously, rights holders attacked hosting sites or the pirates themselves. Now, the Spanish courts are taking aim at the tools used to bypass those blocks.
The court’s decision is based on the argument that VPNs are not just passive conduits but active “middlemen” that facilitate copyright infringement. By classifying them this way, the court requires VPN companies to actively block access to IPs used to watch illegal football streaming sites during La Liga matches.
A European trend?
Spain does not act in isolation. This movement reflects a A similar crackdown in France, where the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) recently obtained a court order requiring ISPs to block DNS access to pirate sites, which then turned into pressure against VPN services.
The French ruling, handed down by the Paris Judicial Court, also targeted major providers, including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark, ordering them to block access to specific pirate domains. However, the Spanish ruling seems to go a step further by requiring the blocking of VPNs own infrastructure (your IP addresses) instead of simply asking VPNs to block specific sites.
This follows a chaotic period for Spanish internet users. In December 2024, a Barcelona court authorized LaLiga to block IP addresses associated with Cloudflare, a major content distribution network. That “blunt instrument” approach is said to have caused widespread outages to legitimate websites and services that had nothing to do with football piracy, simply because they shared infrastructure with pirate sites.
With this new Córdoba ruling, the scope of collateral damage has been expanded again. For now, users in Spain using NordVPN or Proton VPN may find their service unreliable during match times, regardless of what they are using the internet for.
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