Delhi High Court protects Zee Entertainment's broadcasting rights over FIFA World Cup 2026

The Delhi High Court recently protected the broadcasting rights acquired by Zee Entertainment Enterprises for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026, scheduled to take place from June 11 to July 19.

Observing that a prima facie case of copyright infringement is made out, Justice Saurabh Banerjee passed an ex parte interim injunction order on June 3, restraining five rogue websites from unauthorised broadcasting and streaming of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

“The present case, prima facie, appears to be one of widespread copyright infringement by masked players like the defendant nos.1 to 5 [rogue websites], who use the worse edge of today’s technology to conceal their identities to enrich themselves by infringing upon the legitimate intellectual property rights of right holders like the plaintiff [Zee] herein.”

In such a case, the Court stated that if immediate blocking of the rogue websites is not allowed, Zee’s intellectual property rights and its plea would become infructuous.

In its plea, Zee stated that it officially acquired the exclusive media rights for streaming FIFA World Cup 2026 in India on June 1. It submitted that under Copyright Act, it has the right to broadcast, re-broadcast, re-transmit and stream the matches through cable, satellite, terrestrial, IPTV, broadband and mobile technology transmission systems.

However, it submitted that it came to know that rogue websites have announced unauthorised streaming of live FIFA World Cup 2026 matches. Thus, it approached the Court seeking protection of its exclusive broadcasting rights of the football matches in India.

In this order, the Court directed domain name registrars (DNRs) to lock and suspend the domain name registrations of the five rogue websites and mobile applications. The direction also extends to other infringing websites that Zee may discover in future. Further, the Court also directed the disclosure of the name, email address and IP address of the rogue websites to Zee.

The Court further directed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to rogue websites presently identified by Zee and also to infringing websites that may be discovered in future. The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) are directed to ensure compliance of the order by the ISPs.

Justice Banerjee has also granted liberty to Zee to keep the Court apprised of other rogue websites that may be subsequently identified.

The next date of hearing is October 6.

Advocates Siddharth Chopra, Yatinder Garg, Suhasini Raina, Siddharth Chopra, Vivek Ayyagari, Priyansh Kohli and Abhay Aren appeared for Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

[Read order]