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.htmlEl 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.htmlQuick 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.htmlWhy 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.htmlCinco 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.htmlPublic 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.htmlEl 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.htmlCinco 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.htmlWhat 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.htmlEscalation 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.htmlCollection 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/1999781845550956839What 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.htmlOur 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.
