Spanish soccer’s elite LaLiga has announced the expansion of its partnership with global tech giant Google, aimed at continuing the league’s efforts to combat audiovisual piracy.
Google and LaLiga had collaborated across the recent 2025-26 campaign in an effort to protect the competition’s media rights from the increasing threat of digital piracy.
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Across that season, Google had recorded a “very significant reduction” in the volume of piracy incidents through digital channels using Google and Google-linked services.
To this end, Google has optimized its digital piracy reporting tools and services for use by LaLiga, increasing the “communication efficiency” of such piracy complaints and the swiftness of handling by Google.
Speaking on the renewed announcement, LaLiga president Javier Tebas said: “LaLiga remains firmly committed to the fight against piracy. Collaboration is essential to putting an end to this scourge, and being able to count on major players such as Google strengthens us in our purpose.
“Now, together with Google, we are becoming increasingly effective in defending football, intellectual property, the entertainment sector, and the integrity of fans.”
Lino Cattaruzzi, president for Google in the Iberia region, added: “For Google, respect for intellectual property rights and the provision of a safe digital environment are fundamental pillars. That is why we have multiple mechanisms in place to prevent the misuse of our tools by third parties, and we maintain ongoing investment in technology to actively combat piracy.
“This close collaboration with LaLiga demonstrates that, through proactive communication and the proper use of our reporting channels across our products, it is possible to provide content creators with highly effective, agile, and transparent technical solutions that bring security to the entertainment sector.”
The fight against piracy is a core tenet of LaLiga’s media rights strategy.
Indeed, back in November, upon the renewal of the competition’s media rights agreement with broadcaster Telefonica, LaLiga president Javier Tebas remarked: “At a time when many leagues are experiencing declining media values, LaLiga's continued growth and record highs are especially significant.
“This result reflects the strength of our product and the trust of broadcasters, largely driven by our committed fight against piracy, which has helped increase operators’ user bases.”
Back in February, LaLiga and Telefonica succeeded in gaining a court order against virtual private network (VPN) operators NordVPN and ProtonVPN, demanding that the pair move to block IP addresses within Spain that are using their VPN services to pirate LaLiga fixtures.
The order, presented by the Commercial Court No. 1 of Cordoba, identifies VPN operators as ‘technological intermediaries’ in piracy that are subject to the EU Digital Services Act, and as such, it is their duty to prevent piracy infringements.
Logistically, this means that VPN operators such as NordVPN and ProtonVPN must collaborate with LaLiga and Telefonica to identify users who are found with evidence to be pirating content, and then block those IP addresses from service within Spain.
Crucially, this request is both dynamic – meaning updated IP address lists must be provided as infractions are recorded – and not open to appeal from those deemed to be in violation.
