Unprecedented blow to the illegal broadcast of football matches. As LaLiga announced in a statement, “after months of work between more than a dozen countries and private companies, coordinated by the Republic of Bulgaria and led by Europol, a network that illegally provided and distributed content to more than 22 million users around the world” through 2,500 television channels without the consent of the rights owners. During the operation, more than 112 raids were carried out and at least 29 servers and 270 IPTV devices were seized, as well as 100 domains related to illegal activities.
Operation Kratos, which took place this year between early July and mid-September, brought together police forces and authorities from different states, European Union agencies and private digital content companies. The operation was carried out in the context of the celebration of large-scale sporting events this summer, such as UEFA EURO 2024 and the Olympic Games, with the main objective of combating digital piracy in the form of publication, distribution and dissemination of digital content subject to copyright and related rights.
During the operation, led by the Republic of Bulgaria, with the support of Europol and Eurojust, in direct cooperation with the Alliance against Audiovisual Piracy (AAPA), one of the largest networks of streaming illegal that operated inside and outside the EU. Within the framework of the operation, information of operational interest related to the identification of illegal platforms of streamingthe documentation of crimes and the identification of groups of perpetrators of these criminal acts.
As a result of the operation, more than 560 resellers of the pirated service were identified, drugs and weapons were seized in searches, and cryptocurrencies worth close to €1.6 million were confiscated, as well as €40,000 in cash. 15 countries participated in the operation, including Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, together with the support of Europol, Eurojust and the AAPA. was key to the coordination of the action. In other countries, cases have been initiated or concluded respectively regarding illegal platforms through which protected content subject to intellectual property rights is broadcast.
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