Movistar Plus wins court ruling against Telegram pirate
February 3, 2026
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Movistar Plus has secured a significant legal victory in its battle against audiovisual piracy after a Spanish court convicted a Telegram user for illegally distributing streams of the platform, including live football matches.
The Court found the defendant – who operated on Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging app, under the aliases ‘El ingeniero verde’ and ‘Verde ingeniero’ – guilty of disseminating unauthorised access links to Movistar Plus content through private messaging channels. The illegal links allowed users to view the platform’s entire catalogue, including La Liga football rights owned by Telefónica.
Under the ruling, the court imposed a two-year prison sentence, a daily fine of €6 for 15 months, and ordered the defendant to pay €100,000 in compensation to Telefónica de España for the damages caused. In addition, the judge agreed to suspend a previous four-year prison sentence, subject to strict conditions. These conditions include avoiding further criminal activity for 24 months, completing 198 days of community service, and fully complying with the financial penalties imposed. The defendant must pay €20,000 before February 22nd, followed by monthly instalments of €3,333 over the next two years. The court warned that any breach of these obligations would result in the immediate revocation of the suspension and imprisonment to serve the earlier sentence.
The judgment, which is final after being accepted by both parties during the trial, states that the accused acted with the intention of obtaining unlawful financial gain. According to the ruling, the defendant promoted access to a so-called ‘Movistar+ Complete+ Worldwide TV’ package, advertising it via Telegram and providing invitation links to channels offering both Movistar Plus+ content and other material clearly identified with Telefónica’s branding.
The illicit operation charged users an annual fee of €80, and investigators identified payments made via Bizum amounting to nearly €230,000.