Belgian ISPs Ordered to Block Over 130 Illegal Sports Streaming Domains
Belgian ISPs have been ordered to block access to over 130 domains associated with illegal sports streaming services. This move is part of a campaign led by DAZN and football broadcaster '12th Player' in partnership with Belgian ISPs. The blocking order, issued in April 2025, resulted in the withdrawal of OpenDNS from Belgium by Cisco due to technical feasibility issues.
The court ruling on August 20, 2026, dismissed the appeals filed by Cloudflare, Google, and Cisco against the blocking order. The companies were ordered to block access to pirated sports streaming sites, with a fine of €100,000 per day for non-compliance. However, the obligation for DNS resolvers to redirect pirated domains to warning pages has been abolished.
The court ruling also eased penalties for violations, raising the maximum fine per company to €20 million and applying it only on days when DAZN matches are broadcast live. Additionally, fines will not be applied to insufficient blocking due to 'exceptional location detection errors.'