EUIPO study shows drop in online piracy for TV programmes, music and film

Online piracy has posed a significant problem in the European Union. Recognising this, the European Commission has made fighting this type of copyright infringement one of its priorities in the IP Action Plan. Now, a new European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) study looks at Online Copyright Infringement in the EU with a specific focus on piracy in music, films and TV between 2017 and 2020.

In 2019, the EUIPO already published a study on online copyright infringement, using data on access to websites providing pirated films, TV programmes and music in all EU Member States. The main finding was that piracy was declining between 2017 and 2018, but remained a serious problem, with a wide variation among the Member States. The present report is an update of the 2019 study.

The newest study finds that digital piracy is still on the decline and overall access to pirated content decreased by 34 %. TV ranks at the top of the most frequently pirated content, followed by film and music.