Spain’s top-flight football league LaLiga is claiming a record blow against audiovisual piracy, securing criminal convictions, damages and fines against one of the largest illegal IPTV networks.

The criminal network had more than 2 million users and thousands of channels across three continents, including IPTVStack and RapidIPTV, through which it generated revenues of up to €17 million.

The Criminal Chamber of Spain’s National Court has handed down a judgment against one of the largest illegal IPTV networks 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, opened years ago following an initial complaint by Nagravision, was driven forward thanks to the complaint and subsequent extension filed by LaLiga, which provided decisive purchase evidence for the verification of the facts. Multiple companies later joined the judicial proceedings as private prosecutors, such as Movistar Plus+, Mediapro, and Egeda, and the case was ultimately 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 Specialised 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 the well-known ‘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’s president, commented: “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.”

According to LaLiga, the outcome demonstrates the relevance of its global anti-piracy strategy, which in the 2024/25 season succeeded in reducing piracy consumption in Spain by 60 per cent. This set of actions, beyond strictly judicial measures and operations with the State Security Forces and Corps, includes other pillars such as education, institutional action, and technology.

“Collaboration between the Spanish National Police and the private sector is central to [anti-piracy coalition] ACE’s strategy to detect, deter, and dismantle digital piracy networks,” said Larissa Knapp, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Protection Officer at the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in response to the sentencing. “This case shows that when we work together, major illegal operations can be disrupted and those responsible are held accountable.”

José Luis Gómez Pidal, Chief Inspector of the Spanish National Police (UDEV), said the development represented “a landmark ruling against one of the largest international criminal organisations dedicated to audiovisual piracy. The investigation has been groundbreaking in exposing the inner workings of these structures and introducing new technological methods to the Spanish judicial system. At the same time, the case has revealed how digital piracy is intertwined with complex money laundering networks in various countries, using multiple channels to support and divert the enormous profits generated.”

He added that “the multimillion-euro fines for money laundering and the civil liabilities imposed reflect the magnitude of the illicit gains. In this success, the public-private collaboration between the National Police, ACE, and the other plaintiffs has been the determining factor.”

All five defendants have accepted the charges in exchange for a reduction in sentences, admitting to various crimes against intellectual property, the market and consumers, and in several cases, money laundering.

This resolution has been made possible thanks to collaboration between police authorities, ACE, and other rightsholders in the audiovisual industry including MediaPro, Sky, EGEDA, LaLiga, NAGRA (representing the Bundesliga) and Telefónica.

ACE actively worked within this temporary coalition that spearheaded the response against a network illegally exploiting sports broadcasts and other audiovisual content such as films and series. The legal outcome underscores the importance of combining investigative capacity and international cooperation.

According to ACE, this legal ruling sends a clear message to cybercriminals involved in digital piracy; crimes against intellectual property, especially when carried out on a large scale and with international structures, carry extremely serious criminal and financial consequences.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, Content, Pay TV, Piracy, Policy, Regulation, Rights

Tags: Javier Tebas, la liga, Nagravision