Illicit retransmission of sports events

Noting the weakening of the economic model of professional sport Due to the exponential development of audiovisual rights piracy, the National Assembly adopted on October 25, 2021, a bill in order to fight more vigorously against this phenomenon.

Article 24 of the Law n ° 2017-261 of March 1, 2017 aimed at preserving the ethics of sport already allowed federations and other organizers of sports competitions to conclude agreements with Internet players in order to adopt a set of measures and practices intended to fight against the promotion, access and making available to the public online, without right or authorization, sports audiovisual content. 

Article 3 of the bill n ° 2021-1382 of October 25, 2021 created in Book III, Title III, Chapter III, Section 3 (Fight against the illicit retransmission of sports events and competitions) of Sports Code, Article L.333-10who predict :

« II.-The president of the judicial tribunal can in particular order, if necessary under penalty, the implementation, for each of the days appearing in the official calendar of the competition or the sporting event, within the limit of a period of twelve months, all proportionate measures, such as blocking or withdrawal or de-listing measures, capable of preventing access from French territory to any online communication service to the public, identified or which has not been identified in the date of the said order, illicitly disseminating the competition or sports event or whose main objective or one of the main objectives is the unauthorized dissemination of the competition or sports event. The measures ordered by the president of the judicial tribunal end, for each day appearing in the official calendar of the competition or sporting event, at the end of the broadcast authorized by the holder of the exploitation right of this competition or of this event (...) ».

«The authorized and sworn agents of the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority may note the facts likely to constitute infringements of the rights mentioned in Article L. 333-10.

In this context, these agents can, without being held criminally responsible:

1 ° Participate, under a pseudonym, in electronic exchanges likely to relate to infringements of the rights mentioned in the same article L. 333-10;

2 ° Reproduce sports events or competitions broadcast on online public communication services;

3 ° Extract, acquire or keep by this means evidence on these services for the purposes of characterizing the facts likely to constitute infringements of rights;

4 ° Acquire and study the hardware and software suitable for facilitating the commission of infringements of the rights mentioned in said article L. 333-10.

Under penalty of nullity, these acts may not have the effect of inciting others to commit an offense.
The agents record the information thus collected in a report, which gives an account of the conditions under which the faculties recognized in 1 ° to 4 ° of this article have been used. ».

ARCOM will also have the possibility to establish " blacklists »Sites, that is to say the sites " seriously and repeatedly infringing copyright or neighboring rights ». 

The purpose of this public list is to oblige advertisers, advertising agencies and other payment services to declare the existence of business relationships with sites registered on this blacklist.

Finally, ARCOM, will also play an updating role in blocking or dereferencing so-called "mirror" sites.

Indeed, when blocking or removing an illegal streaming site, it is common to see a true copy emerge shortly after. In order to avoid having to initiate the same procedure for each mirror site, ARCOM will make it possible to block these mirror sites more quickly. 

In accordance with article 34 of law n ° 2021-1382 of 25 October 2021, these provisions come into force on 1er January 2022