Online piracy still a major issue in the EU, but Italy stands out as the best at respecting intellectual property

Brussels – Online piracy continues to be popular among Europeans, with an average of ten accesses per person per month to illegal online content. In contrast, Italians stand out for respect for intellectual property, posting the lowest average in the EU.

The data disturbs the European Union Office for Intellectual Property (EUIPO) as there has been no decrease in the use of pirated services. Most of these are television content, with a monthly average of five accesses per EU user.

The relevance of illegal streaming sites is increasing, with visits to pirate websites for internet television (IPTV) services expected to have grown by 10 percent in 2023. The EUIPO study estimates that up to 1 percent of EU Internet users may have subscribed to illegal IPTV services in just two years, not including users who had subscribed before 2022.

Publications piracy has remained stable, with about 2.7 accesses per user per month, and the preferred content is manga. Software piracy grew by 6 percent (with 0.88 accesses per user per month), and Europeans mainly download mobile games. Movies are less attractive, with 0.71 accesses per user mainly via streaming, while music piracy has increased slightly and continues to see content downloading in the lead. As for live sporting events, like television, piracy increased over 2021-2023, with 0.56 accesses per user at the end of last year.

The “fantastic six” of legality sees Italy leading the way, improving its position with just over 7 accesses per citizen per month, followed by Germany (7.7), Romania (7.9), Poland (8.3), Spain (8.5) and Austria (8.9). The Baltic countries and Cyprus close the ranking with more than 20 monthly accesses.

“It is imperative to address the root causes of this behavior, which often stems from a lack of access to affordable legal content and a need for greater public awareness about the consequences of piracy,” said João Negrão, Executive Director of Euipo.

The relation with economic conditions is evident from the EUIPO study. Clearly, higher levels of per capita GDP are associated with lower levels of access to illegal content, while the opposite is true.

A significant share comprises young people, whose percentage of the population contributes to the increase in online piracy, as they are overall the most widespread Internet users. If you add the difficult economic conditions, high unemployment rates, and significant income inequalities in the population, an increase in piracy is guaranteed.

In contrast, the association between higher per capita GDP and greater illegal access to live sports events is counterintuitive. One might expect states with higher incomes to be able to pay for legitimate services, but EUIPO shows otherwise.

The three most relevant hypotheses that explain this are: in lower-income countries, there is less supply and consequently less interest in these services, giving the richer countries a more significant percentage term. Another possibility relates to the price of services, which may have risen due to high demand; this is particularly significant, especially if wealth distribution varies and not all segments of the ‘rich’ population have the same opportunities. A third possibility concerns the reluctance to pay for additional subscriptions, provided that coming from a high-wealth country results in having taken out legitimate subscriptions to other services.

Although economic conditions may not grant the means to access online services, piracy remains a crime, opposed by EU regulations. The European Commission has adopted two recommendations: one on combating online piracy of sports and other live events, setting up a network of dedicated national administrative authorities, and another to combat counterfeiting through increased enforcement and awareness, which significantly contributes to reducing online piracy.