Discount giant caught promoting illegal IPTV subscription
An anti-piracy group has thwarted a discount campaign where the popular American marketplace, Groupon, was advertising pirated IPTV packages at extremely low prices.
BRIEN, the Dutch anti-piracy group, brought attention to a pirated IPTV subscription that was displayed on the e-commerce website Groupon.
Groupon is an American e-commerce site that offers its customers discounts on a range of services from electronics to events.
The once-popular site has since begun advertising illegal IPTV subscriptions, which provide users with unlimited access to entertainment channels featuring premium sports, movies, and series.
However, at the request of the BRIEN Foundation, Groupon swiftly removed the offer and immediately responded to the foundation’s report, as BRIEN is known as a “Trusted Flagger” under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
While budget IPTV subscriptions might seem like a cheap alternative to legal Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) packages, these illegal subscriptions are pirated and could cause harm to consumers.
Illegal IPTV subscriptions are illicit because operators don’t have appropriate licenses or the copyright holder’s consent to stream these shows, channels, or movies. This is a form of digital piracy.
Digital piracy is illegal and has consequences for operators of illegal IPTV subscriptions and viewers.
However, this isn’t the only danger when using these services, as illegal IPTV devices or subscriptions can harbour malware, which can infect your devices and exfiltrate sensitive data.
“Due to the free or low cost of illegal IPTV technologies, illicit IPTV content providers will often resort to intrusive advertising, scams, and the distribution of malware to increase their revenue,” a report on IPTV malware from the University of Bournemouth reads.
These malicious advertisements are designed to steal data and money from users so that illegal IPTV operators and hackers can make more money.
Hackers use Malware to exfiltrate sensitive data, which can be sold to other hackers on the dark web, where it is then used for identity theft and fraud.
Malware isn’t the only thing that users should be concerned about when purchasing illegal IPTV subscriptions. These packages usually require customers to pay an up-front payment for the service.
This is risky because it’s not certain that the subscriptions will always be available, as a global crackdown on illicit IPTV packages may mean that these services will be quickly shut down.
In 2025, millions of people in the UK were using illegal IPTV services, particularly jailbroken Amazon Firesticks.
Multiple people have already been jailed in the UK for selling the jailbroken hardware, with one man jailed for two years for supplying dodgy Firesticks via Facebook.
In August 2024, Sunny Kumar Kanda pleaded guilty to breaching copyright laws after he distributed the Firesticks, and his bank transfers were linked to the illegal activity, according to National Trading Standards.
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