Decision of April 26, 2023 registering the "yggtorrent" service on the list mentioned in I of article L. 331-25 of the French intellectual property code

The French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication,

Having regard to the French intellectual property code, in particular articles L.331-12, L.331-25 and R.331-18;

Having regard to the law of 30 September 1986, in particular article 42-7 ;

Having regard to law n°2004-575 of June 21, 2004 for confidence in the digital economy, in particular article 6, III, 1 and article 19;

Having regard to the letter dated November 29, 2022 by which the rapporteur mentioned in article 42-7 of the law of September 30, 1986 informs the "yggtorrent" service of the initiation, on September 14, 2022, of the investigation proceedings prior to its inclusion on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, containing the statement of offence drawn up on October 5, 2022 by the sworn and authorized agents of Arcom and inviting it to present its observations within one month;

Having regard to the report of March 14, 2023 drawn up by the rapporteur concluding that the elements gathered justify the inclusion of the "yggtorrent" service on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, which was sent to the Chairman of the Authority by letter dated March 16, 2023;

In view of the letter dated March 27, 2023 by which the Chairman of the Authority summoned the "yggtorrent" service to a public meeting on April 19, 2023 at 11:30 a.m. at the Authority's headquarters in order to give it the opportunity to make its observations and produce any supporting evidence;

At the meeting on April 19, 2023, the Authority heard the rapporteur, and the "yggtorrent" service did not appear or was not represented.

Considering the following:

On the legal manager

1. On the one hand, under the provisions of article L.331-25 I of the French intellectual property code, "as part of the mission mentioned in 1° of article L.331-12, the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication may publish a list of the names and actions of those online public communication services which have been the subject of a deliberation in the context of which it has been found that these services seriously and repeatedly infringe copyright or neighboring rights".

2. On the other hand, under the provisions of article L.331-25 II of the French intellectual property code: "The investigation proceedings prior to inclusion on the list mentioned in I of this article are carried out by the rapporteur mentioned in article 42-7 of law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986 on freedom of communication, or by one of his deputies.

The authorized and sworn agents mentioned in III of article L. 331-14 of the present code are qualified to proceed, at the rapporteur's request, with the investigation and establishment of an infringement of royalties or neighbour rights. These agents, who have the investigative powers granted to the authority by article 19 of the aforementioned law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986, may take into account any useful element and request from copyright or neighbor rights holders any information relating to:

1° The operating authorizations that the said holders have granted to online public communication services;

2° Notifications they have sent to online public communication services, or other information making it possible to ascertain the unlawful use of protected works or objects on these services;

3° Findings made by the authorized and sworn agents mentioned in article L. 331-2 of the present code.

The agents' findings are recorded in statements of offence, which are communicated to the rapporteur. If the rapporteur considers that the evidence gathered justifies inclusion on the list referred to in I of the present article, he or she forwards the file to the chairman of the authority."

On the serious and repeated breaches of royalties committed by the "yggtorrent" service

3. According to the official report of October 5, 2022, the "yggtorrent" service offers free downloading of content (films, books, video games, music), listing 591,487 works as of October 5, 2022. As part of this manager, it offers free cinematographic works still in theaters or distributed exclusively on legal platforms (notably, the films Beast; Everything Everywhere All at Once; Bullet Train; Athena; Trois Mille ans à t'attendre; Nope; Thor: Love And Thunder; Pinocchio (Disney); The Greatest Beer Run Ever; Rainbow; Sacrifice; Hocus Pocus 2; My Best Friend's Exorcism; Avec amour et acharnement; Blonde; Krypto et les Super-Animaux; Lou; A Jazzman's Blues; Le Parfumeur; Ne dis rien).

4. According to the same statement of offence, at the request of the rights holders of the works listed on the service, a large number of URLs are removed from search results on a given search engine, demonstrating that the service offers a large amount of protected content without the rights holders' permission. For example, on a certain search engine, the search results pages for the "yggtorrent" service offer a very large number of domain names, with the top result, yggtorrent.ch, alone displaying over two million deletion requests for copyright infringement. For the domain name yggtorrent.fi, 105,360 URLs out of 8,332 individual requests for this domain were the subject of a request for removal from search results over the period from June to September 2022, with 23% of the reported URLs having been delisted by this search engine (61% of the reported URLs no longer appearing in the index).

5. The same statement of offence shows that the "yggtorrent" service has been subject to blocking measures in France, with the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance ordering the blocking of "YggTorrent.ch" and "YggTorrent.net" on October 17, 2019. On its home page, the site also provides information on how to get around these blocking measures, as well as a link to the full list of associated domain names and tips on how to optimize downloading.

6. Lastly, the service does not abide by the identification requirements laid down in article 6, section III, paragraph 1 of law no. 2004-575 of June 21, 2004 on confidence in the digital economy, and in article 19 of the same law, which require public mention of the name and address of the service's legal representative.

7. It is clear from all of the above that the "yggtorrent" service has committed serious and repeated breaches of copyright, justifying its inclusion on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, a list published on the Authority's website; the serious and repeated nature of these breaches justifies this inclusion for a period of twelve months.

After deliberation,

Decides :

Art. 1. - The "yggtorrent" service should be registered for a period of twelve months on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, which will be published on the Authority's website.

Art. 2 - The present decision will be notified to the "yggtorrent" service electronically and published on the Authority's website, in accordance with IV of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code.

Deliberated on April 26, 2023 by Mr. Denis Rapone, presiding member, Mr. Antoine Boilley, Ms. Bénédicte Lesage, Mr. Hervé Godechot, Mr. Benoit Loutrel, Ms. Juliette Théry, Ms. Anne Grand d'Esnon and Ms. Laurence Pécaut-Rivolier, members.

Signed in Paris,

April 26, 2023

For the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication

Councillor,

D. RAPONE