- Cloudflare claims that La Liga’s “indiscriminate blocking” is illegal
- La Liga accuses Cloudflare of “prioritizing commercial interests” over law
- Spain’s anti-piracy crackdown also reportedly impacted legitimate domains
The escalating tension between Cloudflare and La Liga has moved from the server room to the courtroom, with the US tech giant filing appeals against what it describes as “indiscriminate blocking practices” by the Spanish football league.
As reported by the Associated Press (AP), the dispute centers on La Liga’s aggressive campaign to stamp out illegal streaming. The league employs around 50 analysts who scour the web for pirated matches, sending notifications to intermediaries like Cloudflare to shut them down.
However, Cloudflare has been pushing back legally since last summer in the hope of fixing Spain’s blocking of illegal football streams ahead of the next LaLiga season. The company filed appeals with the Spanish Constitutional Court to “demonstrate that La Liga’s overblocking practices are illegal.”
The US-based CDN and DNS resolver company argues that the current approach is far too broad, preventing Spanish users from accessing legitimate websites while the games are on. There were incidents last year where Spaniards had to turn to the best VPN apps to avoid such restrictions.
Cloudflare contends that La Liga’s enforcement measures, designed to curb piracy, inadvertently disrupt access to non-infringing content hosted on the same servers or networks. It warns that La Liga is operating under the belief that its commercial interests “trump the right of ordinary Spanish users to browse lawful sites.”
“Bullying” vs “Digital Shield”
The war of words between the two organizations has become remarkably personal.
According to the AP report, La Liga President Javier Tebas stated that Cloudflare is “fully aware that a significant share of sports audiovisual piracy relies on its infrastructure.”
Tebas went further, accusing the company of acting as a “digital shield for organized piracy networks” and “prioritizing its commercial interests and financial gain over the law.”
Cloudflare’s response was equally sharp. Rejecting the accusations, the company told the AP that La Liga is attempting to “bully their way to having complete control over what Spanish users see online.” The company accused the league of overstepping its authority by pressuring intermediaries to enforce broad, sweeping blocks that go well beyond the intended scope of copyright protection.
Cloudflare insists it is a “long-standing champion of a free and open Internet” and claims the football league is making “unsupported claims and threats” rather than seeking genuine collaboration.
The firm maintains that it fully complies with lawful takedown requests but refuses to enable actions that could stifle legitimate expression or restrict open access to information across Spain’s digital infrastructure.
A history of collateral damage
This legal action follows months of disruption for internet users in Spain. We previously reported on how La Liga football streaming was behind Cloudflare weekend outages, where the “indiscriminate” nature of these blocks took down completely unrelated websites and services.
The frustration has led to a digital migration, with many Spaniards turning to Proton VPN to bypass the restrictions and access the open web.
The situation in Spain mirrors a wider European trend. In France, similar orders to block illegal streaming sites have raised alarms as they have also extended to VPN providers, while the UK is also cracking down on piracy, often catching innocent users in the crossfire.
Cloudflare is now encouraging Spanish users who notice lawful sites being blocked to contact their lawmakers, highlighting the need to fight “internet censorship.”
As the AP notes, Cloudflare is facing similar pressure in Italy, where it was recently fined €14 million ($15.2 million) by the communications watchdog, a sanction the company is also likely to contest.
For now, experts warn that using DNS resolvers as censorship tools remains a risky strategy that threatens the stability of the online world.
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