Today, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee adopted ECR MEP Angel Dzhambazki’s report with recommendations to the European Commission to strengthen sports’ event organisers’ rights in the digital environment. The report calls on the Commission to enable immediate enforcement of rights for live sports events, including the possibility to issue injunctions requesting the real-time blocking of access to or removal of unauthorised online live sports content. Stakeholders and national authorities are encouraged to cooperate more closely.

Speaking after the vote, Mr. Dzhambazki said:

“Sport plays an important role in society and makes significant contributions to education and training, job creation, employability and public health in the Union. Online piracy of live broadcasted sports events is a major challenge that sports events’ organisers face. Currently, there is no specific right at the EU level to alleviate this issue. Moreover, online piracy is threatening online users with malware or data theft.

“It is important to stress that the liability for the illegal broadcasting of sports events rests with the providers of streams and platforms and not with fans and consumers, who often unintentionally come across illegal online content and should be further informed on the legal options available.”