Spain’s football piracy battle has entered a new and far more aggressive phase. In a significant legal escalation, LaLiga is no longer focusing solely on internet service providers. Instead, the league is now demanding that VPN providers themselves block access to IP addresses associated with football streams - or risk facing consequences.
For years, La Liga has pursued court-backed measures to combat unauthorized broadcasts of its matches. Spanish ISPs were already required to implement dynamic blocking orders, updating lists of infringing IP addresses during matchdays. That system allowed rights holders to respond quickly as streaming platforms shifted servers and domains in real time.
Now, the strategy is expanding.
Recent court decisions in Spain reportedly interpret VPN providers as intermediary services under the Digital Services Act framework. Under this logic, if VPN networks facilitate access to football streams - even indirectly - they may be compelled to implement their own blocking mechanisms.
The signal from La Liga is unmistakable: block football streams, or face potential restrictions.
Supporters of the move argue that football piracy has become highly adaptive. Such platforms frequently rotate infrastructure, hide behind cloud hosting, and rely on traffic routed through encrypted tunnels. From La Liga’s perspective, extending enforcement to VPN infrastructure is not overreach - it is escalation in response to a moving target.
Critics, however, warn that this escalation carries serious risks.
Dynamic IP blocking is a blunt instrument. Many IP addresses host thousands of unrelated websites and services. Blocking them - especially during high-traffic match windows - can produce significant collateral damage. Legitimate businesses, platforms, and everyday users may experience disruptions that have nothing to do with football streams.
There is also the precedent. VPN technology is widely used for lawful purposes: securing remote work connections, protecting data on public Wi-Fi, preventing tracking, and maintaining online privacy. Extending copyright enforcement deeper into encrypted network layers raises questions about proportionality and the long-term direction of internet governance in Spain and across the EU.
For privacy-conscious users, this shift highlights a new reality: not all VPN providers are equally prepared for regulatory pressure. Infrastructure control, routing stability, and strict no-logs policies are becoming critical factors. Services such as TrustZone, which focus on independent infrastructure and privacy-first architecture, illustrate how some providers are positioning themselves in an increasingly complex compliance environment.
Spain’s experiment is being closely watched across Europe. What began as a crackdown on football streams may ultimately redefine how far rights holders can reach into the technical backbone of the internet.
The match may last 90 minutes - but the regulatory consequences could last far longer.
