VPNs are under attack in France as major broadcaster and streaming service Canal+ has requested the courts to order VPN services to block websites.
Canal+ and the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), France's football governing body, are demanding VPN providers deny access to sports streaming sites. It is claimed these sites facilitate piracy, and allow workarounds for users to watch popular sports content.
Providers featured on our best VPN list, including NordVPN, Proton VPN, and CyberGhost, are reportedly being targeted by Canal+ and LFP. Canal+ has additionally listed ExpressVPN and Surfshark as respondents.
This is an escalation of French rightsholders' attempts to expand their domestic blocking efforts. Traditional blocks include requiring internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to popular pirate sites, and these have been in place for years.
VPNs are an effective way of bypassing ISP-based blocks, as your true IP address is masked and users can connect to servers in countries where blocks are not present.
As a result, rightsholders want VPN companies to comply with their blocking measures and have cited Article 333-10 of the French Sports Code in legal paperwork. This allows rightsholders to demand "all proportionate measures" against those that are "likely to contribute to remedying" copyright infringement.
Last year the Paris Judicial Court granted its first DNS blocking order in favor of Canal+. DNS blocking is when the IP addresses of certain websites are blocked on a users network – Google, Cisco, and Cloudfare were some of those DNS resolvers targeted in previous legal cases.
The VPN response
The VPN Trust Initiative (VTI), whose membership includes ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark, has called the extension of blocking to VPN providers "unjustified" and warned of "sweeping consequences" that may put "the security and privacy of French citizens at risk."
In a statement the VTI said: "The VPN Trust Initiative, part of the i2Coalition (Internet Infrastructure Coalition), stands firmly against any request for French courts to mandate VPN services to block access to potentially infringing streaming websites."
"While VTI members unequivocally oppose the misuse of VPNs for illegal activities, this move not only misplaces blame but also threatens to undermine cybersecurity, privacy, and digital freedom for millions of French residents."
It went on to say that "VPNs are not facilitators of piracy. They neither host, store, nor promote copyrighted material. Such content is not discovered and referenced via privacy-focused VPN tools. Targeting VPN services for activities they do not enable or promote is a misguided and disproportionate approach."
VPNs are essential for protecting the data of countless people, with the VTI arguing that "VPNs play a crucial technical role in safeguarding the integrity of the Internet."
Blocking VPNs will leave regular French users potentially exposed to malicious threats and lead them to unsafe alternatives – such as fake VPNs. The VTI called on French authorities to reconsider their actions and "recognize the broader implications of this case."
Disclaimer
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
