The Dutch anti-piracy association Brein said this year it sued 75 sellers of illegal IPTV and VOD subscriptions.
Brein offers all providers a civil settlement, but in the event of refusal, legal proceedings are initiated and full legal costs will also be claimed. The total amount of settlements, penalties and reimbursement of legal costs collected this year is around €300,000.
In total, since the GS Media and Brein / Film Player judgments by the Court of Justice of the EU, 275 illegal sellers have been detected by Brein. Of these, around 50 have stopped on their own initiative before Brein knocked on their door. “Stopping before you are caught is still a sensible idea, because the amounts to be paid can be quite high,” said Brein director Tim Kuik.
Meanwhile, last month at an electronics store in The Hague ten IPTV set-tops were confiscated by the police. The company sold them in combination with an IPTV subscription for €199 per year. After entering a code, the box could give unauthorised access to more than a thousand channels including sports.
The case has now been dealt with under civil law by means of a voluntary withdrawal of the boxes and a declaration of abstention with a penalty clause of €500 per box and subscription. This is the second time that the police in The Hague has seized illegal media boxes.
Recently Brein has also arranged with a small online seller of IPTV subscriptions who, besides access to encrypted channels, also gave video-on-demand access to films and series. The man settled for €1250 and signed a declaration of abstention with a penalty clause of €500 per subscription.
