1. Cybercrime & Cybersecurity
Cyberattack: In a statement sent by email to the members of the clubs concerned, the French Shooting Federation announced that it had been the victim of a security incident that affected its information systems. The intrusion is said to have exposed personal data such as licence numbers, civil status and postal addresses. (Statement dated 23 October 2025)
Online fraud: Europol warns against caller ID spoofing, a technique used by fraudsters to display fake official phone number, such as those of the police, to deceive their victims. These fraudsters claim that the person is involved in a criminal case or is a victim of identity theft and ask them for personal information or money. (Press release dated 27 October 2025)
Fraud: In a press release, the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) warns the public against the proliferation of fraudulent offers of loans, savings accounts, payment services and insurance, often made by unauthorised websites or entities that impersonate authorised financial institutions. (Press release dated 24 October 2025)
Piracy: UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, has joined the anti-piracy coalition ACE to better combat piracy of live broadcasts, particularly Champions League matches. This decision aims to protect its rapidly growing revenues, which are threatened by the rise in sports piracy, while strengthening its collaboration with other entertainment and sports giants within the alliance. (Press release dated October 21, 2025)
Cybersecurity: Meta has rolled out new tools on WhatsApp and Messenger to protect older users from online scams: alerts when screen sharing, detection of fake contacts and encouragement to enable strong authentication (Press release dated 21 October 2025).
Cybersecurity: In a technical document, ANSSI warns against the excessive promises of ‘Confidential Computing’. While this technology aims to protect data during processing, the agency stresses that it does not guarantee overall system security on its own and must be part of a comprehensive security approach (Press release dated 1 October 2025).
Cybersecurity: A researcher discovered a flaw in the International Automobile Federation (FIA) platform that allowed access to the identity documents of drivers, including Max Verstappen. The researcher immediately alerted the federation, which corrected the vulnerability (Press release dated 23 October 2025).
Cybercrime: A campaign attributed to the Lazarus hacker group, linked to North Korea, targeted several European defence companies, particularly those involved in drone manufacturing. The attackers used fake job offers to spread spyware and gain access to sensitive information (Press release dated 23 October 2025).
Cybercrime: On 13 October 2025, the Council adopted a decision authorising the European Commission and Member States to sign the United Nations Convention on Cybercrime, which establishes a set of common rules at global level with the aim of strengthening cooperation in the fight against cybercrime (Press release dated 13 October 2025).
Cybercrime: Europol coordinated an operation in Latvia on 10 October 2025, resulting in the arrest of seven cybercriminals and the dismantling of a sophisticated criminal network offering cybercrime-as-a-service. Five servers were seized, along with 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 active SIM cards used to commit large-scale fraud in Europe (Press release dated 17 October 2025).
Cyberattack: Pontarlier Hospital was the victim of a ‘cryptolocker’ cyberattack on the night of 18 to 19 October 2025, resulting in the encryption of some of its data and the total shutdown of its IT system. The hackers are demanding a ransom to unlock access to the servers, and the hospital has had to switch to manual (paper) mode to ensure continuity of care (Press release dated 19 October 2025).
Outage: A major outage hit Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday, 20 October 2025, at around 8:30 a.m., causing much of the internet to become unavailable. Many online services that rely on AWS, such as Prime Video, Snapchat, Signal, Canva, Roblox, Duolingo, Coinbase and McDonald’s, became completely inaccessible. The outage was reported by multiple users and confirmed by indicators on sites such as DownDetector (Press release dated 20 October 2025).
Cybercrime: From 15 to 19 September 2025, Europol supported an international operation against online human trafficking, bringing together 73 experts from 26 countries. This action, led by the Dutch authorities with the support of Germany and the United Kingdom, identified more than 30 potential victims of human trafficking. (Press release dated 13 October 2025)
Online gambling: On Thursday, October 9, 2025, two men were brought before an investigating judge of the French National Court for the Fight against Organised Crime (JUNALCO) accused of managing an illegal online casino that generated nearly one billion euros in turnover since 2021 (Press release of October 9, 2025).
Data breach: Discord announced that it had been the victim of a data breach, including the personal and banking information of certain users, as well as internal company documents (Press release dated October 3, 2025).
Cybersecurity: At a recent Europol conference, experts and law enforcement agencies emphasised the need for enhanced cooperation between the public and private sectors, as well as appropriate legal frameworks, to effectively counter cyber threats (Press release dated October 3, 2025).
Cybersecurity: At the 2025 international conference organised by INTERPOL, 450 participants from 70 countries discussed the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. INTERPOL highlighted the strong link between organised crime and intellectual property offenses and emphasised the need for enhanced cross-border cooperation and information sharing (Press release dated October 1, 2025).
Cybercrime: On September 29, 2025, Asahi Group Holdings suffered a ransomware cyberattack that caused its systems in Japan to go down (Asahi press release dated October 3, 2025).
Hacking/Crypto: In 2025, hackers linked to North Korea (Lazarus group) stole more than $2 billion in cryptocurrencies, mainly through the Bybit attack ($1.46 billion). More than thirty hacks have been attributed to them this year. They now use targeted social engineering and complex laundering techniques (cross-chain transactions, obscure blockchains). Despite this, the traceability of blockchains slows down the collection of funds (Press release October 7, 2025).
Cybercrime: The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announces the dismantling of the “Dark French Anti System” (DFAS) platform (Press release of September 12, 2025).
Cybercrime: The mastermind behind the 2022 hack of Adecco’s data, which affected 76,000 temporary workers and caused €1.6 million in damages, was sentenced to six years in prison. Thirteen accomplices received sentences ranging from six months to three years. The Lyon Court emphasised the seriousness of the fraud and the suffering of the victims, some of whom lost their entire savings (Lyon Judicial Court, 17th Criminal Division, September 26, 2025).
Cybercrime: Operation Contender 3.0, conducted by Interpol in 14 African countries between late July and mid-August 2025, led to the arrest of 260 suspects involved in online scams (romance scams and sexual extortion). Law enforcement agencies dismantled 81 cybercrime infrastructures, seized digital media and false documents, and blocked fraudulent accounts and profiles, thanks to enhanced international cooperation (Press release dated September 26, 2025).
AML-CFT: Tracfin, a French intelligence service responsible for the fight against money laundering, has published volumes 2 and 3 of its 2024-2025 report on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML-CFT), presenting 21 case studies and warning signs to help professionals detect fraudulent schemes, particularly those involving “taxi” companies used to transfer illicit funds abroad. The report also highlights the rapid evolution of financial crime techniques and the importance of international cooperation in countering these illicit, interconnected, and cross-sectoral flows (Volume 2 & Volume 3 of Tracfin’s 2024-2025 report).
Cyberattack: Following a cyberattack on September 20, 2025, several European airports experienced numerous flight delays and cancellations as the passenger check-in system was compromised by a ransomware (Press release dated September 20, 2025).
Data leak: The Crypto.com platform is accused of covering up a data leak that occurred in 2023, initially revealed by Bloomberg (media) and then reported by an investigator specializing in blockchain. Although Crypto.com denies having concealed the incident, its spokesperson acknowledged that the data of a “very small number of customers” had been compromised, without ever publicly informing the users concerned (Statement on X (formerly Twitter) by the platform’s spokesperson on September 22, 2025).
Cybercrime: A global operation coordinated by INTERPOL against financial crime has recovered $439 million and arrested more than 5,500 suspects. The operation, carried out in 40 countries, targeted online scams, money laundering, and email fraud, with the seizure of funds in both virtual and traditional currencies (Press release dated September 24, 2025).
Google / Cybersecurity: Google has suffered a new cyberattack on its portal, which centralises and secures the transmission of all legal requests regarding user data (Press release dated September 15, 2025).
Cybercrime / AI: Cybercriminals are using the Grok AI of the social network X (formerly Twitter) to spread malicious links via videos by hiding fraudulent links in the “source” field of shared media. This method bypasses security protections and exposes millions of users to dangerous sites (Press release of September 3, 2025).
Data Leak: The Kering group (Gucci, Balenciaga, etc.) confirms that it suffered a customer data leak (names, emails, phone numbers) in June 2025 following an intrusion into its Salesforce systems, claimed by the ShinyHunters group (Press release dated September 15, 2025).
Health: The French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines warns of the illegal online sale and advertising of fake products to combat obesity (Press release of September 11, 2025).
Piracy: Nintendo is seeking $4.5 million in damages from the creators of Mod & ArchBox, a tool for pirating games on Nintendo Switch, which it accuses of violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States (Motion filed by Nintendo on October 3, 2025).
2. Disinformation & Information Warfare
Disinformation: The European community fighting disinformation, particularly in Germany, is facing increasing pressure from both hostile foreign actors and internal political changes. Digital platforms are scaling back their moderation policies, while some actors are attempting to discredit efforts to combat disinformation by portraying them as ‘censorship’, further complicating the protection of the European information space. (Press release dated 21 October 2025)
Information warfare: An American study reveals that between February and June 2025, more than 150 fake media outlets were created, mainly linked to a Russian network. These media outlets appear to have been set up to influence elections, particularly the 2026 municipal elections (Press release 18 September 2025).
Disinformation: A report by the EFCN reveals that major platforms, despite the DSA, remain vulnerable to disinformation and are increasingly withdrawing from their moderation obligations, thereby undermining Europe’s fight against deceptive content (Press release of the Belgian Higher Audiovisual Council, dated October 9, 2025).
Disinformation : The @FrenchResponse account was launched by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs on X, with the aim of “countering false attacks targeting France” (Press release Sept. 5th 2025).
Disinformation: Meta enhances its Community Notes fact-checking program by introducing alerts for corrected posts and allowing all users to request or rate notes, aiming to better combat misinformation on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads (Press release of September 10, 2025)
Disinformation: A report by the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) reveals that, despite the Code of Conduct on Disinformation becoming official under the Digital Services Act in July 2025, major digital platforms still fail to fully comply with their commitments, with some even abandoning their pledges while remaining signatories (Press release of September 11, 2025).
3. Personal Data & Privacy
Personal Data: Advocate General Laila Medina considers that the right to data protection does not require prior judicial authorisation for the seizure of business emails in the context of competition investigations, provided that adequate procedural safeguards and subsequent judicial review are ensured. (Press release dated 23 October 2025)
Personal data: TikTok has quietly updated its policies to allow for broader sharing of its users’ personal data with government and regulatory bodies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States. (TikTok Privacy Policy)
Personal data: Social network X (formerly Twitter) plans to display more information on user profiles, such as country of origin, length of account ownership, and number of username changes, to help internet users better assess the reliability of accounts. These changes, which are still in the experimental phase, aim to strengthen trust in the platform, even though fraudsters may find ways to circumvent these measures (Press release dated 14 October 2025).
Personal data: The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), has published a study on French people’s willingness to pay for access to online services without targeted advertising. The survey highlights the issues of data protection and free consent in the face of these new economic models (CNIL press release dated 23 October 2025).
Legislation: The French Prime Minister has signed a decree (No. 2025-980) requiring telecom operators and online platforms to retain their users’ connection metadata (IP addresses, times, traffic and location data) for one year. This text, published in the Official Journal on 16 October 2025 and coming into force on 21 October, is justified on grounds of national security, despite criticism of the risks to individual freedoms (Decree dated 15 October 2025).
Penalty: Since May 2025, the CNIL has imposed 16 new penalties under its simplified procedure, mainly targeting breaches such as excessive monitoring of employees, failure to minimise data, failure to inform data subjects, and shortcomings in security and cooperation (Press release dated October 13, 2025).
Data protection: The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) has clarified that, in the context of loyalty programmes, the right to data portability applies to the barcodes of purchased products and data related to promotions obtained by the customer, if they are associated with the customer’s identification (name, email address, loyalty number). (Press release dated 14 October 2025)
Data protection: The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) has published its 10th Innovation and Prospective Report on digital death, which explores the uses and challenges of post-mortem data, such as data management and transmission. (IP Report No. 10 – ‘Our data after us’ dated 15 October 2025)
Cookies: In a decision dated September 6, 2025, the French Council of State dismissed Yahoo EMEA’s appeal against the €10 million fine imposed by the CNIL. The authority had reproached the company for placing cookies without user consent and for employing practices discouraging their withdrawal. The Council confirmed the CNIL’s jurisdiction, ruling that the “one-stop-shop” mechanism does not apply to cookie-related matters (Decision of the Council of State, September 6, 2025, No. 471717).
Data Act: September 12, 2025, marks the entry into force of the Data Act, which aims to facilitate access to and sharing of data generated by connected objects and digital services in Europe. The objective is to stimulate innovation and competition, while protecting privacy and data security (EU Regulation 2023/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council, known as the Data Act).
4. Digital Economy & Competition
Competition: The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal has upheld a class action lawsuit against Apple for abuse of its dominant position in relation to App Store commissions. The proceedings could result in a fine of up to £2 billion (Press release dated 23 October 2025).
Related rights of the press: In a decision dated 25 September 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the interim order requiring social network X (formerly Twitter) to provide the main French press publishers with the audience and revenue data necessary to calculate the remuneration due under the neighbouring right established by Directive (EU) 2019/790 (Paris Court of Appeal, Division 1 – Chamber 2, 25 September 2025, No. 24/17261).
Anti-piracy/Complaint: Czech company Warezio, which specialises in combating piracy, is threatening ICANN with legal action for unfair competition, accusing it of failing to act against the .to domain name registry, which it considers opaque and complicit in piracy. (Press release dated 13 October 2025)
Digital Euro: On October 2, 2025, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it had selected suppliers for five components of the digital euro and associated services, including risk and fraud management (Press release dated October 2, 2025).
USA / TikTok: Donald Trump has signed an executive order approving the sale of TikTok’s US operations to a consortium of American investors (including Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Rupert Murdoch), allowing the app to continue operating in the United States under majority American control (80%), while addressing national security concerns (US Executive Order on the Future of TikTok and Safeguarding National Security dated September 25, 2025).
USA / YouTube: YouTube has agreed to pay Donald Trump $22 million to settle a legal dispute after the US president’s channel was suspended following the storming of the Capitol in January 2021. Donald Trump accused the tech giant of censoring him (Press release dated September 29, 2025).
EU / Digital: The European Commission has launched a public consultation to simplify the rules on data, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence in the next “Digital Omnibus.” The aim is to reduce administrative burdens and costs for businesses (Press release dated September 16, 2025).
Competition / Sanction : The European Commission has fined Google €2.95 billion for violating European antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology sector. Google favored its own online advertising display technology services to the detriment of competing advertising technology service providers, advertisers, and online publishers (Press release Sept. 5th 2025).
Unfair competition: In a dispute between a ready-to-wear designer and Mango, the Versailles Court of Appeal ruled that the imitation of a textile pattern was not sufficient to constitute unfair competition or parasitism: the risk of confusion was not demonstrated, the exploitation was not concurrent, the illustration was not iconic in nature, and the plaintiff did not prove the individualised economic value of the disputed designs or the parasitic intent (Versailles Court of Appeal ruling dated September 10, 2025, number 23/056890).
5. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence: An international study conducted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC reveals that AI assistants distort information in nearly 45% of cases, highlighting the risks of misinformation associated with their use (Press release from the European Broadcasting Union dated 22 October 2025).
AI/Justice: The Tongzhou Court (Beijing) has handed down China’s first criminal conviction for counterfeiting using generative AI, punishing a defendant who reproduced and sold protected works using AI tools (Decision of the Tong Zhou District People’s Court, Beijing, June 13, 2025).
AI: OpenAI accuses actors linked to China of misusing ChatGPT to create a political surveillance tool called “Peer Review,” used to analyze social media and anticipate protests. The accounts involved have been deleted by OpenAI (OpenAI report dated October 7, 2025).
AI: Cloudflare introduces the Content Signals Policy, an extension to the robots.txt file that enables website creators to clearly express how their content can be used (for example: allowing search, prohibiting AI training), thus providing more control while preserving the openness of the web (Press release Sept 24th 2025).
AI: To combat the use of artificial intelligence, Spotify is strengthening its policies and announcing the removal of any music that imitates another artist’s voice without their permission. It will also inform users about the origin of the music, with the aim of combating the misuse of AI in music (Spotify policy change dated September 25, 2025).
AI / DSA: An alliance of media and digital economy stakeholders has filed a complaint against Google with the German Digital Services Coordinator (DSC), accusing Google’s AI Overviews of violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) by reducing the visibility and revenue of independent media, while threatening media diversity and information transparency (Press release dated September 18, 2025).
AI / Complaint: On September 12, US publisher Penske Media filed a complaint against Google and its AI Overviews feature for republishing its content without its permission, causing a loss of business and thus abusing its dominant position in the search engine market.
AI / Minors: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launches an investigation into the risks posed by artificial intelligence chatbots for minors and the measures implemented to mitigate them (Press release dated September 11, 2025).
Copyright / AI: American startup Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5 billion to authors and publishers for illegally downloading millions of books stored without permission to train its AI (Press release dated September 5, 2025).
6. Intellectual Property & Counterfeiting
Counterfeiting: Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) announces that Taiwanese authorities have charged a group of 12 people for selling illegal streaming devices (ISDs). The operation is part of the international fight against audiovisual piracy (Press release dated 22 October 2025).
Copyright: The French government is considering extending private copying levies to files downloaded offline via services such as Spotify and Netflix. However, an opinion from the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union considers that these downloads do not fall within the scope of the European private copying mechanism (Press release dated 22 October 20025).
Responsibility of intermediaries: Canal+ has obtained an injunction in France requiring Cloudflare, Google and OpenDNS to block DNS resolvers that facilitate access to pirate sites. Cloudflare is challenging these measures in the European courts, while the United States opposes the expanded obligations of the Digital Services Act concerning intermediaries (Press release dated 22 October 2025).
Intellectual property: Europol and the EUIPO organised the ‘From Click to Crime’ conference in Sofia, focusing on intellectual property crime in the digital age. Discussions centred on international cooperation and new investigative methods to tackle online counterfeiting and piracy (Press release dated 22 October 2025).
Counterfeiting: The Marseille Court of Justice has once again convicted artist Peppone for selling pop art busts featuring the character Tintin and the titles of the albums, which are protected by copyright. The court confirmed that Tintin is an original and well-known character and ordered Peppone and the companies involved to pay €100,000 each in provisional damages, while requiring them to disclose their accounts under penalty of a fine (Decision of the Marseille Court of Justice, 9 October 2025, No. 23/02489).
Copyright infringement: The global hit ‘Cheerleader’ (remixed by Felix Jaehn) is facing removal from streaming platforms following a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by French-Moroccan duo BinObin. The latter accuse Sony, Ultra Records and Ultra Music Publishing of plagiarising their song ‘Chajra’, registered with Sacem in 2012, and believe that ‘Cheerleader’ is a copy of it (Press release dated 20 October 2025).
Copyright infringement: In a ruling dated 8 October 2025, the Paris Judicial Court found the New NAF NAF brand guilty of copyright infringement for using, without authorisation, a protected lace pattern belonging to the company Dentelle [O] (Decision of the Paris Judicial Court, 3rd Chamber, 3rd Section, dated 8 October 2025, No. 22/06205).
Fraud: A court in São Paulo has once again convicted a stream manipulation service for fraud as part of Operation Authentica. The ruling confirms that these practices, which are misleading and illegal in Brazil, violate consumer protection law. This is part of a series of legal actions aimed at protecting the music industry and artists from streaming fraud (Press release dated 13 October 2025).
Fight against streaming: The IFPI announced the closure of Y2mate.com, one of the world’s most visited stream-ripping sites, along with 11 other similar sites, following targeted legal action in Vietnam. These platforms, which had a total of more than 620 million visits in one year, were known for enabling the illegal downloading of music from streaming services (Press release dated 14 October 2025).
Fight against counterfeiting: The IACC (International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition) has strengthened its partnerships in Rome, notably with the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), by signing a memorandum of understanding to combat counterfeiting and protect brands in Italy through joint training and online anti-counterfeiting tools (Press release dated October 7, 2025).
Fight against counterfeiting: Earlier this year, an Indian court injunction allowed rights holders, including Disney, to obtain the suspension of 248 domains, even outside Indian borders, to put an end to this constantly recurring phenomenon. Following these operations, platforms such as Vidsrc, HydraHD, and Cineby are multiplying and reappearing quickly after their closure. (Injunction issued by the Delhi High Court in April 2025)
Piracy: The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), is calling on China to crack down on “export-only” piracy services operating from its territory but blocked locally to escape enforcement. They denounce a legal loophole: China does not prosecute infringements that are blocked within the country. They suggest extending Chinese jurisdiction to services operating abroad and strengthening cross-border cooperation (IIPA press release dated September 23, 2025).
Counterfeiting: In 2024, the European Union seized 112 million counterfeit items infringing intellectual property rights, with an estimated value of €3.8 billion. These seizures illustrate the growing importance of counterfeiting in relation to copyright and trademarks, particularly via e-commerce. The report highlights the difficulties in effectively protecting creations and innovations in the face of evolving counterfeiting methods. It calls for stronger legal and customs mechanisms to better protect intellectual property rights holders within the EU (EUIPO press release dated October 1, 2025).
Streaming fraud: For the 1st time in France, in a ruling dated October 2, 2025, the Paris Court of Justice considered that the provision of services facilitating streaming fraud constitutes an illegal activity. As a result, it ordered OVH, one of France’s leading hosting providers, to stop providing hosting services to the JUSTANOTHERPANEL and buybestsuperfans websites, which were identified as being involved in streaming fraud. This decision is part of a jurisprudential approach aimed at holding technical intermediaries accountable for contributing, even indirectly, to illegal online activities (IFPI press release dated October 3, 2025).
Copyright: The French Court of Cassation has clarified the time limit for taking action in cases of copyright infringement: each separate act of reproduction, representation, or distribution of an infringing work triggers a new limitation period. In other words, the victim can take separate action against each new infringement, even if the infringement has been going on for a long time (Decision of the First Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated September 3, 2025).
Copyright: A Copyright Salon was held on September 24, 2025, in Beijing, where Takero Goto, Director of CODA (Japanese Content Overseas Distribution Association), participated to highlight the challenges of protecting audiovisual copyright in the digital age, particularly the growing piracy of Japanese content. The event also served to strengthen cooperation between Chinese and Japanese stakeholders to better protect cultural works (Press release dated September 26, 2025).
Counterfeiting / Copyright: In a ruling handed down by the Paris Court of Justice on September 19, 2025, the judges found that the “Traviata-sonate” lamps marketed by the French fashion brand Sézane did not reproduce the original and distinctive features of the protected lamps. The similarities were generic characteristics and were not sufficient to constitute counterfeiting (Paris Court of Justice, 3rd Chamber, 2nd Section, September 19, 2025, No. 23/08844).
Search Engine Advertising: In a ruling dated September 17, 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal reiterated that the use of a competitor’s distinctive signs as advertising keywords is not in itself unlawful, provided that it does not cause confusion in the mind of the consumer. The decision reaffirms that trademark protection must not impede economic freedom, provided that the contested use complies with the rules of transparency (Paris Court of Appeal, September 17, 2025, No. 23/17581).
Transparency Report / DMCA: Google’s latest Copyright Transparency Report records over 2 billion pirated URLs added in recent months, totaling more than 5 billion in one year, with approximately 500,000 URLs now being reported every hour (Google Transparency Report).
Piracy / Sports : On September 18, 2025, the President of the Paris Judicial Court ordered Google and Bing search engines to delist illegal streaming sites and IPTV services that were broadcasting Ligue 1 McDonald’s and Ligue 2 BKT matches without authorisation. For the first time in France, a preventive injunction was obtained against these actors (Press release of September 22, 2025).
Piracy / Sports: The Anti-Piracy Alliance (ACE) and the DAZN platform have secured the closure of the Calcio platform, which specializes in illegal streaming of football matches. Primarily active in Italy (80% of its traffic), it also affected France, Spain, the United States, and Germany (Press release dated September 8, 2025).
Justice / Copyright: The lawsuit for copyright infringement of archived recordings between Internet Archive and several major music labels has been settled amicably (Notice of Settlement of Dispute dated September 15, 2025).
Copyright / Justice : Warner Bros, owner of licensing rights for Batman, Superman, Flash, Tom and Jerry, and Scooby-Doo, is suing generative AI publisher Midjourney for copyright infringement (Press release Sept. 5th 2025).
Counterfeit: In a ruling on September 26, the Paris Court of Justice recognised the counterfeiting of Dior shoes, but awarded only €4,000 in damages. This decision reflects a judicial trend to minimise compensation in the luxury sector, where price differences make economic damage difficult to prove and moral damage difficult to compensate (Paris Court of Justice, September 26, 2025, No. 22/03301).
IPTV/DAZN: On 9 October 2025, the streaming platform DAZN issued formal notices to users accused of accessing illegal IPTV services, demanding the payment of €500 and the immediate cessation of infringements within seven days, failing which legal action would follow (Press release dated 9 October 2025).
7. Regulation & Justice
Platform regulation: The European Commission has concluded, on a preliminary basis, that TikTok and Meta have failed to comply with their obligations under the Digital Services Act, particularly with regard to researchers’ access to data and the transparency of recommendation systems. The investigation also covers the management of mechanisms for reporting and removing illegal content. (European Commission press release dated 16 October 2025)
Complaint/Apple: Apple has filed a complaint against the European Commission before the CJEU to challenge the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which it considers “excessively intrusive”. The company believes that the obligations imposed, the opening up of its ecosystem and the compatibility of iMessage, threaten the security and privacy of users. (Press release dated 23 October 2025)
Advertising: European Regulation 2024/900 of the European Parliament and of the Council dated 13 March 2024 came into force on 10 October 2025. It brings together a series of rules relating to the content of political advertising, such as transparency and labelling requirements for each political advertisement. (EU Regulation 2024/900 dated 13 March 2024)
Justice: In a ruling dated 7 October 2025, the Lille Judicial Court held that the procedure under Article 6-3 of the LCEN Act (accelerated proceedings on the merits) could not be used to obtain the removal of content that actually fell under the 1881 Act. The case concerned a request from a company director seeking the removal of an article published on a specialist news website. (Decision of the Lille Judicial Court, 7 October 2025, No. 25/01290)
Justice: The operator of a manga piracy site failed to avoid a DMCA subpoena seeking to reveal his identity via Cloudflare. A US court ruled that because Cloudflare stores cached content, it must disclose information about the site operator, confirming that DMCA subpoenas also apply to caching services. (Order denying motion to quash dated 14 October 2025)
Complaint/TikTok: In an investigation published on its website, Amnesty International (NGO) announced that it has joined forces with families complaining about the dangerous impact of TikTok’s algorithms on the mental health of minors. The investigation reveals TikTok’s algorithm’s ability to push users towards potentially dangerous content. (Press release dated 21 October 2025)
Legislation/USA: The Governor of California (United States) has signed a series of bills aimed at better protecting minors on social media, digital platforms and, more broadly, conversational chatbots. (Press release dated 13 October 2025)
EU: On 9 October 2025, Germany officially blocked the European “ChatControl” project, which aimed to impose the automatic scanning of private messages to combat child sexual abuse. Berlin denounced a serious infringement of encryption and fundamental freedoms, equating the measure to mass surveillance. This refusal deprives the European Commission of the majority required to adopt the proposal (Press release dated 9 October 2025).
DSA: The Dutch court has ordered Meta to reintroduce within two weeks, under penalty of a penalty, a non-personalised chronological feed option on Facebook and Instagram to guarantee users’ freedom of choice (Press release of October 2, 2025).
Google / Justice: Google has appealed to the US Supreme Court to block a court ruling that requires it to open its Play Store to competition, by allowing the installation of rival app stores (such as Epic Games) and enabling developers to bypass its payment system (Press release dated September 24, 2025).
Amazon / Justice: Amazon has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a lawsuit in the US, accused of using “dark patterns” (misleading interfaces) to push millions of customers to subscribe to its Prime service and make cancellation difficult. The e-commerce platform also commits to simplifying the registration and unsubscription processes (Agreement between the Federal Trade Commission and Amazon dated September 25, 2025).
EU / DSA: On September 23, 2025, the European Digital Services Council met in Brussels to discuss the protection of minors online (strengthening the Digital Services Act guidelines), coordination between the DSA, regulation of political advertising, and the future European Democracy Shield, as well as actions to enforce the DSA, particularly against pornographic platforms and online fraud (Press release dated September 23, 2025).
DSA: The Paris Judicial Court reiterates that the Digital Services Act (DSA) is a directly applicable European regulation that cannot be circumvented by a derogatory national procedure. Only the authorities designated by the DSA are competent to monitor compliance with the DSA’s obligations, and not the national judge ruling in urgent cases (Paris Court of Justice, September 19, 2025, No. 25/51051).
Fast-fashion: The fast fashion brand PrettyLittleThing, a subsidiary of the British group Boohoo, has been fined €1.3 million by the French Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs, and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) following an investigation that revealed misleading discounts to consumers (DGCCRF press release dated September 23, 2025).
Google trial: Google is currently facing its second major federal trial of the year in the United States, this time for its monopoly on the digital advertising market. In April 2025, Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google had illegally maintained a dominant position in this sector, paving the way for a trial on “remedies” to restore competition (Press release dated September 22, 2025).
DSA : The European Commission requests Apple, Booking.com, Google, and Microsoft (Bing, Google Play, Google Search) to provide detailed information on how they identify and manage risks related to financial scams, in accordance with the Digital Services Act (Press release of September 23, 2025).
DSA / Justice : The General Court of the European Union confirms the European Commission’s decision that Zalando is a very large online platform under the DSA (Press release Sept. 3rd 2025).
Fast fashion: In a joint statement dated September 16, European textile federations warned the European Commission against the dangers of fast fashion and called for urgent action from the European Union (Press release of September 16, 2025).
