Quad9 to withdraw DNS services from France

The Swiss-based non-profit foundation Quad9 has announced it will withdraw its free DNS resolver services from France by November 24, 2026. The decision follows a French court ruling in favor of sports rights holder beIN Sports France, which ordered the service to block access to specific domains used for the illegal broadcasting of WTA tennis matches via IPTV.

Quad9 stated that the withdrawal is a matter of principle rather than finance. The foundation argues that complying with the ruling by adding domains to its global blocklist would effectively allow French law to be enforced worldwide for the benefit of a single private company. Additionally, because Quad9 does not maintain a user database, it cannot identify which requests originate from France to implement localized IP-based blocking.

The legal pressure includes a court-ordered fine of 1,000 euros per day for failing to implement the blocks. Quad9 notes that approximately 20 other similar legal proceedings are pending in France, which could demand the blocking of hundreds of domains, creating significant financial and operational risks for a non-profit provider. This follows a similar move by Cisco, which discontinued its OpenDNS service in France in June 2024.