On a Europe level, a shift takes place discreetly in the fight against audiovisual hacking. Long tolerated on the sidelines of the system, illegal IPTV consumers are now found on the sights of the authorities. This inexpensive mode of access to premium content, often perceived as trivial, today triggers direct judicial responses, ranging from fine to locker. By attacking the subscribers themselves, the states seek to cut short a phenomenon which has become too massive to remain unpunished.
In France, a bill tabled in March 2025 aims to harden sentences for simple users. The Le Big Data site recalls that the fines could go up to 750,000 euros and seven years in prison in the event of a recurrence in an organized gang. Even the promotion of these services, by a simple sharing on social networks, can now be punished by a year of imprisonment.
These measures are added to an arsenal already in place, where the Arcom identifies users via their IP address and addresses several progressive warnings. Three quarters of them would cease their use after these notifications, proof of the effectiveness of this approach.
In Europe, the first sanctions come across the subscribers themselves
This repressive turn does not only concern France. In Italy, 2,282 users recently received a fine of 154 euros, delivered directly at home. According to digital, this first wave stems from an unprecedented protocol between the communications regulator, the financial police and justice, authorizing consumers' repression.
Italian law provides for up to 5,000 euros in the event of recurrence. Claudio Lotito, senator and president of the Lazio club, praised this initiative, saying that it was time to put an end to impunity. For him, users should no longer believe they are untouchable.
Greece also applies a firm policy. 13,000 subscribers are on the list of an in progress trial, resulting from the dismantling of a large pirate network. Amendment 65A, voted in February 2025, makes it possible to inflict fines from the simple possession of illegal IPTV software, even without active consumption. In this country, sanctions range from 750 to 5,000 euros, depending on the degree of use or the intention of profit.
Why the use of IPTV worries the authorities beyond hacking
This growing severity is explained by the economic and criminal issues linked to the illegal IPTV. In eight years, the network dismantled in Greece would have generated 25 million euros in profits while causing more than 100 million losses to local operators such as Cosmote, Nova or Vodafone, according to information relayed by Torrentfreak.
These services often rely on opaque circuits mixing money laundering, screens and sports betting companies. Subscribing, even in all naivety, amounts to indirectly supporting these structures. This is why several European states today consider consumers as active links of a system to fight.
Italy has also managed to collect user data by using email address bases. Thanks to these files, the authorities can now send fines without complex legal proceedings.
Behind the desire for deterrence, governments also seek to protect a weakened legal ecosystem. Piracy harms investment in sport, cinema or audiovisual creation. It is the cultural economy as a whole that is threatened. The fight against illegal IPTV is therefore no longer just a case of copyright. It becomes a battle for the digital integrity of Europe.
