Spanish court rejects fines against NordVPN over LaLiga blocks
A Spanish court declined to fine NordVPN after LaLiga requested coercive fines for the VPN provider's alleged failure to fully implement a piracy blocking order. NordVPN successfully argued that dynamic IP addresses made blocking difficult and broad IP-level blocking would cause overblocking of legitimate sites. The original injunction requiring blocking remains in place, and the underlying case is ongoing, while broader opposition to indiscriminate IP blocking in Spain mounts.
Key Takeaways
- Commercial Court No. 1 of Córdoba refused LaLiga’s request for coercive fines against NordVPN.
- NordVPN argued the flagged IP addresses changed frequently, often within hours, making the blocking lists stale.
- The company said blanket IP-level blocking would overblock thousands of lawful websites in Spain and beyond.
- The original February injunction remains in place, and the underlying case is still ongoing.
- Spain’s Congress committee passed a non-binding April 29 motion calling for a Digital Services Law reform based on “technological proportionality”.
Why It Matters
The immediate effect is narrow but important: NordVPN avoided coercive fines, but it still has to deal with the February injunction and the ongoing Córdoba proceedings. The dispute also keeps pressure on Spain’s blocking regime, where the article says overblocking has already hit lawful sites and services at Cloudflare, Vercel, GitHub, and Docker. The next concrete signal to watch is whether the court’s merits ruling addresses NordVPN’s evidence on rapidly changing IPs and overblocking, or simply extends the same interim approach.
Read full article at torrentfreak.com