Commission Recommendation (EU) 2023/1018 on combating online piracy of sports and other live events

Summary:

Recommendation - adopted by the European Commission on 4 May 2023 - on how to combat commercial scale online piracy of sports and other live events, such as concerts and theatre performances.

Further information:

Sports and live events contribute to fostering a diverse European cultural scene, to bringing citizens together and to providing a sense of community. The organisation of such events as well as their live transmission require substantial investments, while at the same time they contribute to economic growth and job creation. Unauthorised streaming can cause significant loss in revenue for performers, live and sports event organisers and broadcasters, thus undermining the viability of the services they offer.

This Recommendation encourages the Member States of the European Union (EU), national authorities, holders of rights and providers of intermediary services to take effective, appropriate, and proportionate measures to combat unauthorised retransmissions of live sports events and other live events. It recalls the obligations of Member States, holders of rights, providers of intermediary services and recipients of their services in accordance with the binding provisions of the existing legislative framework. This includes Directive 2000/31/EC, Directive 2001/29/EC, Directive 2002/58/EC, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Directive (EU) 2019/790 and Directive 2004/48/EC.

The document focuses on three main areas -- prompt treatment of notices related to live events, dynamic injunctions, and commercial offers and awareness. It also seeks to enhance cooperation between national authorities, and between rightsholders and intermediaries. Finally, the Recommendation sets up a monitoring system to assess its effects on the fight against piracy and to consider further measures if needed.

The Recommendation was published by the European Commission on 4 May 2023, building on the 2020 Action Plan on Intellectual Property and in response to a Resolution adopted by the European Parliament in May 2021 on the challenges of sport event organisers in the digital environment. It was published in the Official Journal on 24 May 2023.

Official

European Commission: Press Release, 04/05/2023: Commission recommends actions to combat online piracy of sports and other live events https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2508

---