The Paris Court has made a landmark ruling, ordering Cloudflare to implement specific blocking measures to stop the illegal broadcast of MotoGP 2025. This decision, issued on March 28, recognizes Cloudflare’s triple role as a DNS resolver, content delivery network (CDN), and reverse proxy service. It sets a key precedent in the fight against audiovisual piracy.
The ruling came after Canal+ complained about repeated copyright infringement related to the unauthorized rebroadcast of the motorcycle championship. In response, the court ordered Cloudflare to apply DNS blocks, suspend its CDN service, and disable the reverse proxy for offending sites.
The decision also includes dynamic blocking measures coordinated with the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (ARCOM). This allows restrictions to be adapted to new pirate pages not yet identified.
A Key Precedent in French and European Legislation
This ruling reinforces the interpretation of Cloudflare as a technical intermediary that, under French law, has the ability to mitigate audiovisual rights infringements. The court rejected Cloudflare’s petition to limit the measures, finding that the company failed to demonstrate they were unviable or economically disproportionate.
The judge noted that Cloudflare’s reverse proxy service acts as a shield between users and servers hosting infringing content, facilitating illegal transmission. This decision aligns with the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and reinforces the growing judicial trend of expanding the responsibility of tech platforms in the fight against online piracy.
International Impact and Background
Cloudflare has faced similar decisions in other countries for its alleged lack of cooperation in combating piracy. This French ruling strengthens the legal framework for protecting intellectual property rights in the digital environment and may influence future court decisions within and outside the European Union.
The US company is expected to respond to the court’s decision in the coming days, while the audiovisual sector celebrates this new milestone in protecting its online content. The court’s ruling sets a significant precedent for the role of technical intermediaries in preventing copyright infringement.