FIFA World Cup 2026 Piracy Crackdown: Delhi High Court Grants Dynamic Injunction to Zee

By Rima Majumdar and Aashi Nema

Introduction

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is scheduled to be held from June 11 to July 19, 2026, and with the advent of any major sporting event, the online piracy sites also mushroom around the same time.

In India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (“Zee”) secured exclusive media rights to broadcast and stream the 2026 FIFA World Cup, through a rights confirmation agreement entered into on June 1, 2026. Within days of this acquisition, rogue websites had already begun advertising unauthorized live streams of the tournament, a brazen, pre-emptive strike at Zee’s intellectual property even before the first whistle was blown.

Seeking interim reliefs and removal of such rogue websites,  Zee approached the Hon’ble Delhi High Court, and vide its order dated June 3, 2026, in the matter of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. v. https://soccerbox.me/ & Ors., Justice Saurabh Banerjee granted various directions intending to protect the rights of the Plaintiff.

Arguments Advanced by Zee

Zee advanced the following contentions before the Court:

1. That it has the exclusive media rights for broadcasting the 2026 FIFA World Cup in India.
2. That under Section 37 of the Copyright Act, 1957, the Plaintiff enjoys exclusive broadcast reproduction rights, which entitle it to prevent any person from rebroadcasting, communicating to the public, or making available for viewing any live match content without Zee’s express authorization. Any such unauthorized activity constitutes infringement of its broadcast reproduction rights.
3. Zee argued that the identified Defendants are classic rogue websites as they have concealed their domain registration details, masked their identities, and are operating in a coordinated manner to infringe Zee’s rights even before the tournament has commenced. Such Defendants are not traceable through ordinary legal means and any delay in obtaining relief would render the proceedings infructuous.
4. Zee strongly urged that the World Cup was only days away and the harm caused by even a single match being streamed without authorization would be immediate, massive, and irreversible. Unlike ordinary intellectual property disputes where damages may be assessed after, live sports broadcasting is time sensitive. As such, once a match is streamed without authorization, the damage to the rights holder’s commercial interest cannot be undone.
5. Zee additionally sought a dynamic injunction order enabling real-time blocking of infringing websites and mobile applications that may be discovered subsequently, without the need to return to Court for each newly identified pirate platform.

Court’s Order

1. The Hon’ble Court observed that the present case, prima facie, appears to be one of widespread copyright infringement by masked players who leverage modern technology to conceal their identities while enriching themselves through unauthorized exploitation of legitimate intellectual property rights. The Court specifically noted the exploitative nature of the Defendants’ conduct, i.e., using technology as a shield while simultaneously weaponizing it to commit infringement at scale.
2. The Court found that a prima facie case of copyright infringement was clearly established in Zee’s favour, given the unambiguous acquisition of exclusive media rights on June 1, 2026, and the near-immediate emergence of rogue websites advertising unauthorized streams.
3. On the question of balance of convenience, the Court held that it undeniably tilts in Zee’s favour. The Court reasoned that if immediate blocking of the rogue websites is not ordered, Zee’s intellectual property rights and the very relief sought in the present proceedings would be rendered infructuous, thus highlighting the special urgency inherent in matters involving live broadcasting rights.

The Court also acknowledged the broader concern of digital piracy by clandestine actors such as, websites that operate invisibly, whose owners are untraceable, and whose business model is entirely built on the exploitation of others’ intellectual property.

Based on the above the Court directed the concerned Domain Name Registrars (DNRs) to forthwith lock and suspend the domain name registrations of the five identified rogue websites and their associated mobile applications.

A Dynamic Injunction was also granted extending the Court take down directions to any other infringing websites and mobile applications that Zee may discover and identify in the future, thus giving Zee the ability to seek real-time blocking without initiating fresh proceedings for each new pirate platform.

Author’s Note

The order passed is appropriately in line with the precedent already established by the Delhi High Court in the past in similar cases of online piracy and rogue websites. (Also read: https://ssrana.in/articles/superlative-injunction-in-the-digital-age-combating-real-time-piracy/)

This order also demonstrates the critical importance of proactive enforcement by right holders. Zee’s swift action by filing a suit within two days of acquiring its rights and obtaining a court order, a full eight days before the tournament commenced, sets the tone for what effective rights protection in the digital age must look like. Waiting for infringement to occur and then approaching the Court is a luxury that live broadcasting rights holders simply cannot afford.