Online piracy threatens the sustainability of the whole sport sector – EPP Group

The European People’s Party wants to strengthen the fights against online piracy of sports events.

During a debate in the European Parliament, the EPP Group urged the European Commission to propose legislation that protects sports events organisers, amateur sports clubs and fans from a professional private companies. This black market brings in million of Euros. The insisted that broadcasts reported as illegal should be removed or disabled within 30 minutes. The EPP also proposed promoting legal sources of sport content and an enforced cooperation between ports organisations, broadcasters, internet intermediaries and national authorities in order to combat piracy effectively.

The European Parliament will adopt its position on Tuesday.

“Online piracy of sports events has major consequences, especially for amateur clubs and sports federations which are partly financed by the income from audiovisual broadcasts. For the French football industry, for example, this means a loss of nearly €500 million each year for our amateur clubs. We must stop these illegal activities”, said Geoffroy Didier MEP, EPP Group Deputy Spokesman in the Legal Affairs Committee, who negotiated the parliamentary Report on behalf of the EPP Group.

“Without revenue from successful sports events there are no solidarity payments for grassroots sport, no security in stadiums, no investments in better venues and much less development of young sporting talents. Online piracy threatens the sustainability of the whole sport sector”, added Tomasz Frankowski MEP, who negotiated the topic in Parliament’s Culture Committee.