Cloudflare and its CEO, Matthew Prince, received an order to appear before Investigating Court Number 50 in Madrid to answer for online piracy allegations.
Movistar Plus, a broadcaster and Spanish Football League (La Liga), brought a suit against the American tech firm, alleging that it violated some intellectual property rights. Now the court wants answers and expects Matthew Prince to testify on April 7.
Details of the conflict
LaLiga and Movistar claim Cloudflare ignored more than a hundred formal requests they sent asking it to take down some addresses using its network to illegally stream football matches.
According to the claimants, this issue cost them a combined financial damage of €859 million (nearly $959 million). They also alleged that a large percentage of Spain’s football piracy market relies on Cloudflare. To be specific, about 38% of illegal streams in the country route through the company’s content delivery network.
This is not a first-time offense actually. In December 2024, a court in Barcelona approved ‘dynamic blocking’ orders allowing rights holders and internet providers to shut down pirate domains in real time.
However, due to Cloudflare’s shared hosting model, carrying out this order becomes tricky. Blocking one shady site can accidentally affect legitimate businesses sharing the same IP addresses.
This same infrastructure that complicates piracy enforcement is also what makes Cloudflare invaluable for protecting those legitimate businesses, as seen when the company defended a cryptocurrency platform from a record-breaking DDoS attack that could have otherwise knocked the service offline entirely.
Spanish football rises against online content piracy
Sources familiar with the matter say it’s the first time a big tech company faces a piracy-related indictment in Spain. Cloudflare maintains a critical infrastructure intermediary, so this case sets a precedent in Spanish legal and business circles.
The accusations, however, extend beyond just Cloudflare’s ignorance of takedown requests. The complaint also accused the tech firm of threats and obstruction of justice. It raises the stakes from an ordinary civil dispute to possible criminal charges for the company.
For months now, LaLiga president Javier Tebas has been championing a public campaign against Cloudflare. Earlier in January, he started a personal attack on Matthew Prince on social media.
He stated that the tech CEO is becoming the ‘Narco Maduro’ of the internet. Tebas claimed Prince is hiding behind “the flag of ‘freedom’ to demand impunity”. The LaLiga president also argued that fighting piracy isn’t censorship, but “combating crime.”
Furthermore, he mentioned that when infrastructure encourages people to steal content, protects and enables them to make money out of it, it becomes a crime. Tebas has, on multiple occasions, painted Cloudflare as the primary enabler for piracy consumption in Spain.
The significance of this case
This legal battle spotlights a growing global tension. On one side, you have major tech platforms advocating for an open internet and often acting as neutral conduits for data.
Then on the other side, there are the sports rights holders who spend billions on broadcast deals. They want piracy enforcement to become more stringent to protect their investments.
The matter is still in its early stages of investigation. Yet, sources close to LaLiga say the court’s decision to admit the complaint is a “step forward” for Spanish justice. All parties eagerly await the April 7 hearing when Matthew Prince must answer the court’s summons in person.
Whatever the outcome, Cloudflare’s reach continues to expand, from defending against DDoS attacks to powering Microsoft Edge’s new built-in VPN, ensuring the company will remain at the center of internet infrastructure debates for years to come.
