Nintendo’s Lawsuit Win Against Major French Sharehoster Is Now Final
Nintendo has announced that the French judiciary Court has ruled that DSTORAGE SAS, who operates the sharehoster website ‘1fichier’, is liable for failing to remove or block pirated games from the platform.
Although the Paris Court of Appeals had previously ruled in favour of Nintendo in 2023, this further clarification from the French judiciary Court is considered the final word on the matter, marking “an end to a long lawsuit”.
Nintendo states that it “is pleased with the Court’s finding of liability against DSTORAGE and believes that it is significant not only for Nintendo, but for the entire games industry”. DSTORAGE is now obligated to remove or block such content from the platform, and will be liable to pay compensation to Nintendo should it fail to do so.
According to TorrentFreak, 1fichier is a ‘freemium’ site that is open to access for all users, with optional payments required to remove certain restrictions. The site also allows links to its content to be posted elsewhere, meaning that the general public would have access to content that potentially infringes upon copyright law.
Here’s a partial look at Nintendo’s statement:
“Nintendo is pleased with the Court’s finding of liability against DSTORAGE and believes that it is significant not only for Nintendo, but for the entire games industry. It will prevent sharehosters like 1fichier.com from claiming like it did during the proceedings on the merits that a prior decision from a court is needed before pirated content must be taken down, and it confirms the rights that holders have to give notice of when claiming that notified content infringes copyright or trademark rights.
“Together with its recent decision of January 15th, 2025, confirming that a major French Bank had rightfully terminated a payment processing agreement with 1fichier.com due to lacking anti-piracy measures, the French Supreme Court leaves no doubt that sharehosting providers like 1fichier.com are not a safe haven for storing and sharing illegal content.
“Nintendo promotes and fosters development and creativity, and strongly supports developers who legitimately create new and innovative software. Nintendo’s message to consumers is not to download pirate copies of Nintendo games as this increases the risk that this will interfere with the functionality and experience that playing legitimate Nintendo games on authentic Nintendo hardware provides.”
Nintendo is known for being particularly vigilant with its intellectual property, and has made multiple successful moves against Switch emulators in the past. It’s currently in the middle of a lawsuit against Palworld, a game that Nintendo claims infringes upon multiple patents.
What do you make of this decision? Is it the right move? Let us know your thoughts with a comment down below.