'Biggest' illegal streaming op taken down by Euro enforcers

Law enforcement authorities across Europe have busted one of the largest illegal streaming networks operating within and outside the EU.

The illegal operation was involved in the large-scale, illegal distribution of movies and series and the pirating of more than 2,500 television channels – including sports broadcasters – making them available to over 22m users worldwide without the consent of the copyright holders.

According to Europol and Eurojust – which provided support for the operation dubbed Taken Down – there was evidence of other illegal activity including laundering and cybercrime as well as the incidents of alleged copyright infringement, which was the main thrust of the investigation.

The investigation targeted 102 suspects, 11 of whom were arrested, for distributing material from streaming services online illegally. In addition, more than 112 house searches were conducted, at least 29 servers confiscated, around 100 domains taken down, 270 IPTV equipment/devices seized, and over 560 resellers identified.

Properties were raided in Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Romania, as well as the UK.

Brands whose intellectual property was allegedly infringed by the network included Disney+ Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Sky.  

Around €1.6m ($1.68m) in cryptocurrency and €40,000 in cash was seized, along with various drugs and weapons. It is estimated that the service caused €10bn in financial damage to rights holders every year.

Operation Taken Down was supported by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA), whose president, Mark Mulready, said: "The scale of these multi-jurisdictional law enforcement actions highlights the considerable challenge our industry faces when dealing with such sophisticated international pirate networks."

He added: "We are proud to have collaborated with our law enforcement partners to provide technical training and in-field support to assist them in successfully tackling the world’s largest pirate network."