Nine organisations urge government to include fight against content piracy in its declaration

Nine Latvian media, copyright, technology and business organisations are calling on the new government to include the fight against piracy of protected content online in its declaration. The proposal was sent on 21 October to all political parties represented in the Saeima, Latvia's parliament, including those forming the government, and on 26 October to the responsible ministries.

The groups also want the task added to the priority list of the coalition cooperation agreement, with a responsible official named and a cross-sector action plan drawn up within six months.

Losses and prevalence

According to the organisations, piracy costs Latvia 54.2 million euros in economic losses a year, while the state budget misses out on 11.4 million euros in value added tax annually. Citing a 2025 study by the Ministry of Culture, they say 67% of Latvian adults use pirated digital content in at least one content category. Data from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) place Latvia first in the EU for the prevalence of such piracy.

The groups see illegal online distribution of television content as one of the problems: sign-up sites of illegal services are visited each month by about 8% of Latvian internet users, compared with an EU average of 2.14%. Such services also keep channels banned in Latvia for security reasons available, weaken the effect of sanctions and serve as a channel for spreading malware.

Tatjana Guzņajeva, executive director of the Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia (FICIL), says piracy affects fair competition and the investment climate. In her words, companies investing in content, technology and infrastructure should not be at a disadvantage against those using illegal channels and paying no taxes.

Proposed solutions

Current rules allow access to illegal sites to be restricted, but the process can take three to six months, and offenders meanwhile resume operations under new domains. The organisations urge changes to the procedure in the Copyright Law so that access can be restricted faster in clear-cut cases, while keeping proportionality, transparency and procedural safeguards.

They also want Latvia to take an active part in the review of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive, develop a public e-library, expand legally available content in Latvian and include legal use of digital content in school media literacy classes.

The proposal was submitted by the association "Par legālu saturu!", the Latvian Association of Broadcasting Organisations, TV3 Group Latvia, LIKTA, AKKA/LAA, LaIPA, the Latvian Book Publishers Association, FICIL and the Latvian Advertising Association.