Belgian Court Upholds DNS Blocking Order, OpenDNS Exit Looms in EU

Belgium's anti-piracy efforts have taken another step forward as the President of the French-speaking Business Court of Brussels upheld a DNS blocking order against Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco. The order requires alternative resolvers to block pirate sports streaming domains on match days, with a €100,000 per day fine for non-compliance.

The court ruled that it's technically possible for alternative DNS resolvers to block domains and that the companies failed to show that the costs would be disproportionate. The blocking measure aims to strengthen the effectiveness of blocking injunctions imposed on ISPs and discourage users from accessing unlawful content.

Cisco, which operates OpenDNS, has stated that it will pull the service out of Belgium again rather than comply with the order. The company argues that its public DNS system does not allow for selective, geolocated, and dynamic blocking as required by the order. A formal statement from Cisco is still being finalized.