The Senate is presenting a bill concerning French football, with a whole section on the fight against illegal streaming of sporting events. A specific offense would be created for the occasion.
French football is in crisis. The president of the Professional Football League (LFP), Philippe Diallo, believes it is "structural" and that a major overhaul is necessary. To trigger it, two senators have presented a bill relating to the “organization, management and financing of professional sport“. It comes in a tense context regarding the broadcasting rights for Ligue 1. DAZN has indeed refused to pay its January payment of 35 million euros.
The English platform has a low number of subscribers, around 500,000, and blames this failure on piracy. It points the finger at the LFP, which, according to it, is not doing enough to combat the phenomenon. To address this issue, the proposed law provides for the creation of a "sports piracy offense," which currently does not exist in France. But who would be affected? Users of illegal services, as Italian Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo wants? Not here.
To combat sports piracy, France wants to introduce a new offense.
The offense would target those who make "sports piracy sites and services, IPTV boxes, or software providing access to such services" available to the public. Added to this category are the people who promote it.
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The text displays the penalty incurred by pirates in the event of conviction: up to 3 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros. As for those who advertise it, they would be liable to ‘one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros.
This bill is only at the beginning of its legislative cycle. Taking into account the path it still has to browse, and assuming that the votes will ultimately be in its favor, it will be definitively adopted by Parliament around this summer, or even at the beginning of autumn.
Source: Le Monde
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