Quad9, a Swiss nonprofit foundation providing free recursive DNS services, has announced it will withdraw its services from the French market starting November 24, 2026. This move follows an unfavorable ruling by French courts in a case brought by beIN, a Qatari company. The court ordered Quad9 to block DNS resolution for a specific set of domain names that beIN claims are involved in copyright infringement of its audiovisual rights for sports broadcasts. While the court reduced the financial penalty against Quad9 to €1,000 per day, the organization stated it cannot comply with the ruling without compromising its core principles of privacy and internet integrity.
This image represents the official announcement by Quad9 regarding its withdrawal from the French market due to legal pressures.
Quad9 maintains that recursive DNS is a neutral, passive service and that it cannot reliably identify or isolate users based on their geographic location. Because the service is free and requires no sign-up or identity verification, Quad9 does not maintain a database of its users' jurisdictions. The organization argues that implementing the court's order would require either a global block—which would apply French law to users worldwide—or a geo-based blocking system that Quad9 has previously found to be technically imprecise and legally risky. In a 2021-2023 legal case in Germany, Quad9 attempted to use geo-based blocking but was fined for contempt of court after the plaintiff used a VPN to circumvent the restrictions.
This map visualizes the global infrastructure of Quad9, which the organization argues makes geo-based blocking technically imprecise.
The withdrawal is a matter of principle for the Swiss foundation, which aims to protect user privacy and defend against cyber threats without participating in content censorship. Quad9 notes that it faces approximately 20 other pending lawsuits in France demanding similar blocks. The organization argues that forcing DNS resolvers to act as content filters is an ineffective way to combat piracy, as users can simply switch to other, less secure DNS providers. By exiting the market, Quad9 aims to eliminate the legal risk of being forced to choose between non-compliance penalties and implementing technical measures that would violate its mandate to provide honest, privacy-preserving DNS responses.
The Quad9 logo identifies the organization involved in the legal dispute and subsequent service withdrawal.