Quad9 to stop serving users in France on 24 November after court ruling
A French court ordered Quad9 to block domains in a case brought by beIN, with a €1,000 daily penalty. Quad9 says it will not block and will withdraw from France instead.
Quad9, the Swiss nonprofit DNS resolver, said on 22 October that it will stop offering its service to users in France from Tuesday 24 November.
A French court ruled in favour of beIN, requiring Quad9 to block resolution of domain names beIN says infringe its sports broadcast rights. The court reduced the penalty from €580,000 to €1,000 per day. Quad9 says it will not alter DNS responses, that it cannot reliably identify which users are in France, and that blocking globally would apply French law to users worldwide.
Quad9 says about 20 other lawsuits are pending against it and other resolver operators in France, and that it cannot survive accumulated penalties from them. It cites a 2021–2023 case in Germany where geoIP blocking led to a contempt fine before it won the case.
An appeal is pending, and Quad9 says it will continue to defend its position in court.