LaLiga Accuses US Tech Giants Google, Cloudflare, and X of Facilitating Piracy in USTR Submission

• Spain’s premier football league alleges several U.S. tech giants encourage piracy via their infrastructure.
• Google, Cloudflare, X, and more were named “piracy enablers” in the annual Special 301 Report.
• LaLiga also nominated numerous countries for inclusion in the USTR’s Watch Lists, notably the U.K. and Germany.

LaLiga has taken an unusual stance in its submission to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for the annual Special 301 Report, highlighting U.S. tech giants, including Google, Cloudflare, and X (formerly Twitter), as enablers of piracy.

While the initiative typically targets foreign countries for intellectual property (IP) enforcement deficiencies, Spain’s premier football league organization claims that firms like Google, Cloudflare, X, and Coredeluxe provide services that encourage piracy networks to flourish. 

According to LaLiga, these platforms offer critical infrastructure such as anonymization services, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), Domain Name Systems (DNS), VPNs, hosting, content indexing, and social media promotion, which collectively facilitate the operation and promotion of pirate services.

While the submission does not provide detailed explanations, past reports offer some insights into LaLiga’s grievances. Cloudflare often faces criticism from rights holders for allegedly obscuring the hosting locations of infringing websites. 

Similarly, X has been accused of being slow to respond to takedown notices. Regarding Google, LaLiga has frequently raised concerns about pirated apps on Google Play and the visibility of pirate sites in its search results.

Google recently took steps to de-index pirate domains in nations enforcing such blocks through court orders or administrative measures. Still, LaLiga urged Google to de-index websites globally with many infringement notices and introduce preventative measures to block illegal streaming and IPTV services from appearing in its search engine altogether.

Beyond its critique of U.S. companies, LaLiga’s submission also nominates numerous countries for inclusion in the USTR’s Watch Lists, notably the U.K. and Germany. While China and Russia are familiar names for IP violations, including the U.K. and Germany, home to Europe’s biggest football competitors—the Premier League and Bundesliga—marks an unprecedented move.

Countries recommended for the Priority Watch List—the most critical category in the Special 301 Report—are typically those with egregious IP enforcement issues. LaLiga cites piracy networks purportedly linked to the U.K. and Germany as justification. However, both nations have robust copyright policies and have historically been absent from the Watch Lists in the past two decades of Special 301 reporting.

The nomination of the U.K. and Germany raises eyebrows, particularly given LaLiga’s direct competition with the Premier League and Bundesliga. While this could appear coincidental, the inclusion of these nations, often seen as leaders in IP enforcement, contrasts with standard expectations for the Priority Watch List.