Spanish ISP Blocks Sweep Up Legitimate Sites
A Spanish court order targeting unauthorized football streaming has led to indiscriminate IP-level blocks that are taking legitimate websites offline. The enforcement, driven by LALIGA, does not distinguish between infringing and non-infringing services sharing the same IP addresses.
In December 2024, Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona authorized LALIGA to require Spanish ISPs—including Movistar, Vodafone, and Orange—to block IP addresses tied to unauthorized streaming. The court upheld the ruling in March 2025, and enforcement has since expanded to affect Vercel infrastructure and other major platforms.
IP-Wide Blocks Instead of Targeted Takedowns
Standard ISP-level blocking typically relies on Server Name Indication (SNI) inspection during the TLS handshake. Because the hostname is transmitted in plaintext before encryption, ISPs can block specific domains while leaving other traffic on the same IP untouched.
That is not what is happening here. Spanish ISPs are blocking entire IP addresses, ignoring SNI entirely. Any website or service behind a blocked IP becomes inaccessible, regardless of its content or legitimacy. The blocks are enforced primarily on LALIGA matchdays—weekends and select weekdays during live broadcasts.
The result is a broad censorship mechanism with no due process or transparency, impacting businesses and developers with no connection to piracy. This is not isolated to one provider: Cloudflare, GitHub Pages, and BunnyCDN are also affected.
Impact on Vercel Customers in Spain
Two IP addresses are currently blocked for users on a subset of Spanish ISPs:
66.33.60.12976.76.21.142
These addresses serve lawful content from businesses including Spanish startup Tinybird and Hello Magazine, all operating on Vercel with no ties to piracy. Users outside Spain, and those on unaffected ISPs, experience no disruption.
Vercel's Response and Next Steps
Vercel says it is working with LALIGA to remove illegal streaming content and confirms that the two IP addresses above are no longer blocked as of April 18. No action is required from Vercel customers, and the company reports receiving no takedown notices related to LALIGA content in the past seven days.
Vercel operates a dedicated abuse team that responds to reports via its abuse form, investigating and removing deployments that violate its Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Service—including phishing, malware, and copyright or trademark violations. The company states it maintains a zero-tolerance policy for illegal content on its platform.
Vercel is exploring mitigation strategies to restore access for Spanish users and is in contact with LALIGA to comply with the court order while advocating for targeted, transparent enforcement. Affected users can join the open discussion in the Vercel community forums or contact support.
