ISPs demand that rights holders be held accountable for causing 'excessive network outages.'

To stop copyright infringement by pirated websites, rights holders are requesting internet service providers (ISPs) to block access based on IP addresses and domains. However, piracy countermeasures can sometimes lead to major problems, such as when a professional soccer league blocked illegal streaming of matches, resulting in millions of innocent websites being affected . A group representing European ISPs has asked the European Commission to hold rights holders directly responsible if excessive blocking occurs as a result of site blocking orders.

European ISPs Want Rightsholders Held Accountable for Overblocking Damage * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/european-isps-want-rightsholders-held-accountable-for-overblocking-damage/

In 2024, Italy's anti-piracy shield system expanded its scope too much, resulting in instances where Google Drive, several school websites, telecommunications companies, and ticketing services became inaccessible within Italy.

Google Drive was unusable for over 12 hours due to a mistake in domain blocking implemented as a copyright infringement prevention measure - GIGAZINE

Furthermore, in 2025, when Spain's professional football league 'La Liga' requested ISPs to block illegal streaming, Cloudflare blocked all of its IP addresses, resulting in numerous unintended consequences.

In Spain, blocking a football piracy site resulted in millions of innocent websites being affected - GIGAZINE

In June 2025, EuroISPA , representing more than 3,300 European ISPs, warned the European Commission that 'we are deeply concerned that some European rights holders and certain member states are implementing 'disproportionate network blocking measures'.' According to EuroISPA, despite repeated incidents of excessive blocking, some EU member states continued to intensify their 'aggressive blocking' efforts.

Furthermore, EuroISPA, in its submission of an evaluation of the report 'The Benefits and Costs of Website Blocking Legislation: Economic, Legal, and Policy Assessments,' published in April 2026 by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) , a leading independent think tank that studies EU-related policies , reiterated that 'the trend of preventing copyright infringement in some countries is becoming increasingly radical.'

According to EuroISPA, recent site blocking orders have expanded to intermediaries other than ISPs, such as DNS resolvers and VPN providers. EuroISPA argues that these services often have no direct connection to the infringing content and lack the technical means to implement geographically limited blocking, and that this, combined with the recent surge in excessive blocking, is becoming a major problem.

EuroISPA also suggests that 'the rights holder who caused the excessive blocking incident should be held responsible for the damages.'

EuroISPA also opposed the 'rapid blocking requirement,' which demands that service providers implement blocking measures quickly. It was pointed out that this requirement, requiring providers to respond within 30 minutes, could be problematic for small businesses.

As of the time of writing, the European Commission is still reviewing its system based on its report, and it is unclear how it will respond to EuroISPA's proposals.