European Commission recommends actions to combat online piracy

The European Commission released a Recommendation to combat commercial-scale online piracy of live events, including sports, concerts, and theatre performances, among others. Namely, it encourages Member States, national authorities, and intermediary service providers to take adequate measures, in accordance with data protection rules, to combat unauthorized retransmissions.

The Recommendation focuses on prompt treatment of notices related to live events, dynamic injunctions, and commercial offers and awareness. It highlights the importance of ensuring a regular exchange of information, challenges, and good practices between administrative authorities while ensuring effective cross-border cooperation between Member States in their fight against online piracy of unauthorized online events. It also sets up a monitoring system with the support of the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights (EUIPO Observatory) to assess the Recommendation’s effectiveness in combating online piracy. On the basis of the outcomes of the monitoring system, the European Commission set a deadline to assess the effects of the Recommendation by 17 November 2025.

The Recommendation is non-binding, and lawmakers and industry rightsholders have raised their concerns over the EU’s executive for not proposing a legislative instrument on such an issue.