# Access Issues with Cowlendar in Spain During LaLiga Matches

> Explanation of Cowlendar access issues in Spain related to ISP blocks during LaLiga matches.

### What is happening

At certain times — especially **during LaLiga football matches**, typically on weekends — some users in Spain may experience **temporary access issues with Cowlendar**.

We want to be very clear from the start:

**This is not a Cowlendar outage or an internal technical failure.**

The issue is caused by **internet blocking measures applied in Spain** as part of an anti-piracy strategy promoted by **LaLiga**, enforced by internet service providers and **supported by court rulings**. Due to **poor technical implementation**, these measures have resulted in **overblocking**, affecting legitimate services unrelated to football.

**Sources:**

El País — Jordi Pérez Colomé — 19/02/2025
  [https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-19/cloudflare-lleva-a-los-tribunales-a-laliga-para-evitar-mas-bloqueos-indiscriminados-de-paginas-web.html](https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-19/cloudflare-lleva-a-los-tribunales-a-laliga-para-evitar-mas-bloqueos-indiscriminados-de-paginas-web.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

El País — Jordi Pérez Colomé — 15/02/2025
  [https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-15/moscas-a-canonazos-la-lucha-contra-la-pirateria-en-el-futbol-tumba-miles-de-webs-legitimas.html](https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-15/moscas-a-canonazos-la-lucha-contra-la-pirateria-en-el-futbol-tumba-miles-de-webs-legitimas.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

### Quick context: what is Cloudflare and why it matters

**Cloudflare** is a global web infrastructure provider that helps websites and applications run **faster, more reliably, and more securely**. It provides protection against cyberattacks (such as DDoS attacks), improves performance, and enables secure encrypted connections.

The key issue here is that **Cloudflare hosts many websites on shared infrastructure**, including **shared IP addresses**.\
When LaLiga orders the blocking of one of these IPs, **thousands of unrelated, legitimate websites and apps can be taken offline at the same time**.

According to Spanish media, **around 160,000 websites in Spain use Cloudflare**, which explains the scale of the impact.

**Source:**

El País — Jordi Pérez Colomé
  [https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-19/cloudflare-lleva-a-los-tribunales-a-laliga-para-evitar-mas-bloqueos-indiscriminados-de-paginas-web.html](https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-19/cloudflare-lleva-a-los-tribunales-a-laliga-para-evitar-mas-bloqueos-indiscriminados-de-paginas-web.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

### Why LaLiga and the Spanish authorities are affecting legitimate services

Since **February 2025**, LaLiga has been enforcing **weekly internet blocks** aimed at stopping illegal football streaming.

Multiple Spanish newspapers have documented that these blocks are **not sufficiently precise** and are applied at **IP level**, despite the fact that IPs are shared by many lawful services.

Spanish media have also reported that the **Spanish government has chosen not to intervene**, publicly stating that it “respects judicial decisions,” even after evidence emerged that businesses and users were being harmed.

**Sources:**

El País — Jordi Pérez Colomé
  [https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-05-13/desde-x-a-una-app-de-padel-los-bloqueos-semanales-de-laliga-en-internet-ya-provocan-quejas-sobre-derechos-fundamentales-en-espana.html](https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-05-13/desde-x-a-una-app-de-padel-los-bloqueos-semanales-de-laliga-en-internet-ya-provocan-quejas-sobre-derechos-fundamentales-en-espana.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Cinco Días — J.V.
  [https://cincodias.elpais.com/legal/2025-05-29/asociaciones-de-internautas-denuncian-ante-el-defensor-del-pueblo-los-bloqueos-web-de-laliga.html](https://cincodias.elpais.com/legal/2025-05-29/asociaciones-de-internautas-denuncian-ante-el-defensor-del-pueblo-los-bloqueos-web-de-laliga.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

### Public evidence of overblocking (legitimate services taken offline)

Spanish newspapers have published multiple examples showing that the blocking strategy has caused **collateral damage**:

La Vanguardia reported that, alongside a piracy-related block, **around 3,300 legitimate websites became inaccessible**, due to shared IP addresses:\
  [https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20250214/10384058/bloqueo-futbol-pirata-internet-afecta-paginas-legitimas.html](https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20250214/10384058/bloqueo-futbol-pirata-internet-afecta-paginas-legitimas.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
El País documented that well-known services such as **X (Twitter), Redsys, and Steam** were affected, confirming the cause was **LaLiga’s weekly blocks**, not service outages:\
  [https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-15/moscas-a-canonazos-la-lucha-contra-la-pirateria-en-el-futbol-tumba-miles-de-webs-legitimas.html](https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-15/moscas-a-canonazos-la-lucha-contra-la-pirateria-en-el-futbol-tumba-miles-de-webs-legitimas.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Cinco Días reported that user associations filed a complaint with the **Spanish Ombudsman**, describing the blocks as **“massive and arbitrary”** and affecting **fully legal services**:\
  [https://cincodias.elpais.com/legal/2025-05-29/asociaciones-de-internautas-denuncian-ante-el-defensor-del-pueblo-los-bloqueos-web-de-laliga.html](https://cincodias.elpais.com/legal/2025-05-29/asociaciones-de-internautas-denuncian-ante-el-defensor-del-pueblo-los-bloqueos-web-de-laliga.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

### What Cloudflare is doing to address the issue

#### Legal action against LaLiga

Cloudflare has **taken LaLiga to court in Spain**, seeking to overturn the legal framework that allows these blocking practices.

Cloudflare argues that LaLiga **failed to disclose the foreseeable harm to third parties**, and that the measures are **disproportionate** and threaten an **open internet**.

**Source:**

El País — Jordi Pérez Colomé — 19/02/2025\
  [https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-19/cloudflare-lleva-a-los-tribunales-a-laliga-para-evitar-mas-bloqueos-indiscriminados-de-paginas-web.html](https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2025-02-19/cloudflare-lleva-a-los-tribunales-a-laliga-para-evitar-mas-bloqueos-indiscriminados-de-paginas-web.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

#### Escalation to Spain’s Constitutional Court

The conflict has also reached the **Spanish Constitutional Court** via a constitutional appeal filed by RootedCON, citing that pirate sites are blocked **while legitimate websites are also made inaccessible** due to shared infrastructure.

**Source:**
La Vanguardia — Francesc Bracero — 16/05/2025\
  [https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20250516/10690265/conflicto-bloqueos-laliga-webs-partidos-llega-constitucional.html](https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20250516/10690265/conflicto-bloqueos-laliga-webs-partidos-llega-constitucional.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

#### Collection of evidence from affected customers

Cloudflare is actively **collecting reports from legitimate customers** affected by these blocks to use as evidence in ongoing and future legal actions.

Official Cloudflare statement:\
[https://x.com/Cloudflare/status/1999781845550956839](https://x.com/Cloudflare/status/1999781845550956839)

### What you can do in the meantime (temporary workarounds)

While these blocks continue, the following options may help:

Use a **VPN** connected to a country outside Spain
**Switch networks**, such as using mobile data
**Retry later**, as blocks usually coincide with match times and are lifted afterward

VPN usage as a workaround is explicitly mentioned by Spanish media:

La Vanguardia — 14/02/2025\
  [https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20250214/10384058/bloqueo-futbol-pirata-internet-afecta-paginas-legitimas.html](https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20250214/10384058/bloqueo-futbol-pirata-internet-afecta-paginas-legitimas.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

### Our commitment at Cowlendar

We understand how disruptive it is when a work tool suddenly becomes unavailable.

To summarize:

**Cowlendar is not experiencing an internal outage**
The issue is caused by **external internet blocks** related to poorly implemented anti-piracy measures during LaLiga matches

✅ **Cowlendar is actively cooperating with Cloudflare**, reporting real incidents and providing technical evidence, with the goal of helping resolve this situation as quickly as possible and supporting efforts to stop indiscriminate blocking that affects legitimate services.