Two uneventful employees, 26 and 33 years old, one a customer service manager at the Postal Bank, the other a computer scientist at the City of Arras, find themselves before the court for having resold codes IPTV giving access to the League 1Ligue 2 and the main streaming platforms. “Everyman” profile, but business entirely based on the piracy of TV rights.
In 2024, their activity generated nearly €34,000 in turnover, before a private detective mandated by the LFP does not go up their network via X and Telegram. The result is a one-year suspended prison sentence, a fine of €15,000 including €10,000 suspended, and €17,000 seized. A case which, combined with the first convictions of users, seriously reshuffles the cards for football fans tempted by pirate IPTV.
Pirate IPTV: how two French people set up a business around Ligue 1?
According to The Digitalseverything starts in 2023: the youngest is a simple customer of an offer IPTV illegal. At the start of 2024, he switched to resale, buying his codes for €50 and reselling them for between €80 and €100. The promotion is done on X via a friend’s account, then the customer base migrates to Telegram. In court, he blurted out this sentence which sets the tone of his regrets: “I should have stopped”.
To bring down the duo, the LFP commissioned a private detective who infiltrates the channels, identifies the advertisements, then traces the exchanges back to the two friends, arrested on June 17, 2025. They had access to the League 1Ligue 2 and complete SVoD catalogs, for customers who wanted to see everything without piling up legal subscriptions.
IPTV conviction in Arras: what penalties for resellers and simple users?
On April 7, 2026, the court pronounced a one-year suspended prison sentence, a €15,000 fine of which €10,000 was suspended, and the seizure of €17,000 from two bank accounts. The prosecution demanded 18 months. Particularity of this file, noted by The Digitals : the conviction will not appear in the criminal record, to “preserve their professional integration”. But the rating could still climb, the LFP claiming €100,000 in civil damages.
His lawyer points out that audiovisual piracy represents 1.5 billion euros in lost revenue per year in France, including 323 million for the State, and tells the defendants: “You have a French championship which is slowly but surely dying if this continues.” A few weeks earlier, around twenty users had already been sentenced in Arras to fines of €300 to €400 by criminal composition, with registration in the record and legal ceiling which could go up to €7,500.
IPTV and Ligue 1: can justice really scare millions of fans?
On RMC, however, several users explain that they can no longer do without IPTV pirate. “I’ve had an IPTV for two years already and I use it practically every day. It’s mainly for matches. Now, if I want to follow the five major championships, I have to pay 300 euros per month… It’s not serious”, underlines Alan, 18 years old. Remy, unemployed, says he pays €70 per year and “can’t do without it anymore”.
On the other hand, listeners like Samuel denounce a system which “shoots down the system” by drying up the financing of the League 1 and cinema. Lawyer Gérard Haas recalls on RMC that there have already been 232 convictions between €90 and €1,000 in 2023, and that “the people convicted recognized that it was piracy, it is in their record”. According to him, Arcom is “not efficient enough”, which pushes the LFP to toughen up the tone, from resellers to simple subscribers of pirate boxes.