European authorities crack down on illegal streaming platforms

Police launched dawn raids across Europe on Wednesday against suspected pay-TV pirates, seizing equipment and shutting down services they said were sold illegally to millions of viewers, Italian authorities said.

Coordinated by European Union agencies Europol and Eurojust, police carried out the raids in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Bulgaria in an investigation into the role of organised crime in pay-TV piracy.
The investigation was born out inquiries that began in Italy where prosecutors in Rome and Naples found evidence of sophisticated, large-scale illegal subscription businesses. The pirates charged prices well below legal subscriptions.
The biggest illegal platform shut down on Wednesday, dubbed Xtream Codes, had around 50 millions users worldwide, Gianluca Berruti of the Italian tax police told Reuters.

It sold a bundled pay-TV...