Spanish National Court hands down record €43 million judgment against IPTV operation that illegally distributed football, films and series to more than two million users

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LaLiga has issued details of a major court judgment against a criminal network that had more than 2m users and thousands of channels across three continents. 

It represents a record blow against audiovisual piracy with criminal convictions, damages, and fines of more than €43 million against one of the largest illegal IPTV networks.

The Criminal Chamber of the National Court handed down the judgment for offences against the market and consumers, intellectual property, and money laundering, setting one of the largest compensation awards in the history of Spain for an intellectual property offence.

The case was opened years ago following an initial complaint by Nagravision, and was driven forward through the complaint and subsequent extension filed by LaLiga. This provided decisive purchase evidence for the verification of the facts.

Multiple companies later joined the judicial proceedings as private prosecutors, including Movistar Plus+, Mediapro and Egeda, and the case was resolved with the defendants accepting the joint accusation brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the rest of the private prosecutors.

The investigation was carried out mainly by the Central Cybercrime Unit of the Directorate General of the Police, as well as by the Intellectual Property Group of the Central Unit for Specialized and Violent Crime (UDEV), with the support of Europol and Eurojust in international coordination.

The judgment sets compensation of €12 million for the affected companies and more than €30 million in fines for money laundering.

The network, led by ‘Dash, the Iranian’, operated through channels such as rapidiptv.com, rapidiptv.net, and iptvstack.com, illegally distributing football broadcasts, films, and series, including LaLiga content, to more than two million people from servers spread across 13 countries on three continents.

To launder that money, the organisation used payment gateways, cryptocurrency exchanges, shell companies, and false invoices.

Among the identified operations were the construction of a residential building in Iran, the purchase of a property in Barcelona valued at €1.7 million, and the acquisition of two high-end vehicles for €400,000.

The agreement includes the confiscation of all seized assets and funds and the permanent shutdown of the domains.

Javier Tebas, LaLiga president, said: “Audiovisual fraud is a scourge that threatens the survival of an industry that is fundamental to the European economy, namely live sport. We are proud of this exemplary sanction, which shows that piracy must be fought forcefully at every level, especially against the organisations and mafias behind it.”