Got a letter about a dodgy box?

This page is for people who have received a letter about a dodgy box or an illegal IPTV subscription. It explains what the letters are and how they came about. It does not tell you what to do with yours, because that depends on your circumstances and the right person to advise you is a solicitor acting for you.

First: get your own advice

Before you sign anything, reply to anything, or decide to ignore anything, talk to a solicitor.

That is not us being cautious for the sake of it. A Wexford solicitor quoted in the Wexford People in June 2026 said she would not advise anyone who received a cease-and-desist letter from Sky to return it signed without first seeking legal advice from their own solicitor. The letters themselves, according to the Irish Times in May 2026, state that the undertaking is legally binding and recommend that recipients seek independent legal advice.

An initial consultation with a solicitor is usually short and not expensive relative to what is at stake. Free Legal Advice Centres run clinics in many areas, and Citizens Information can help you find options.

What the letters are

In May 2026 the Irish Times reported that Sky had sent around 200 cease-and-desist letters to suspected dodgy box users. Most went to addresses in Wexford, with the rest spread across 18 other counties.

According to that report, the letters:

• demand a signed undertaking within two weeks;
• warn that injunctions, damages and costs could follow if no undertaking is given;
• state that an undertaking, once signed, is legally binding;
• advise the recipient to seek independent legal advice;
• treat a failure to respond as non-cooperation.

A second round, described as “final warning” letters, was reported by the Wexford People in June 2026.

How your details were obtained

The letters follow a High Court order made in March 2026. The Irish Times and Irish Examiner reported that Mr Justice Brian Cregan granted a Norwich Pharmacal order requiring a payment provider to disclose, within 28 days, the names and addresses of 304 subscribers and 10 resellers connected to a Wexford-based IPTV service. Sky brought the application; Premier Sports, GAA+, LOITV and Clubber supported it.

A Norwich Pharmacal order is a court order directed at a third party who holds information identifying a wrongdoer. Here the third party was the company through which payments were made. The order limited use of the disclosed data to initiating proceedings.

So if you received a letter, the likely reason is that you paid the Wexford-based service through a route that kept a record of who you were.

What the letter is not

It is not a criminal charge. The letters came from a rights holder’s solicitors, not from the Gardaí or the Director of Public Prosecutions. Garda sources quoted by the Irish Times in June 2025 described end-user cases as effectively a civil matter.

It is not a court judgment either. As of the date at the top of this page, we have not found a report of proceedings actually issued against an individual subscriber. Sky’s counsel told the High Court in March 2026 that it “would just not be possible to bring cases against all 304 subscribers”. That is not a promise that no one will be sued; it is a statement about scale.

The law behind it

The relevant statute is the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000. Section 371 makes it a summary offence to receive a protected broadcast, knowing or having reason to believe it is being received unlawfully, with intent to avoid the charge the rights holder applies. The penalty on summary conviction is a class C fine, which the Fines Act 2010 sets at up to €2,500. Section 372 gives broadcasters civil remedies. There is a fuller explanation on is it illegal?.

Which of these, if any, applies to your situation, and what the realistic exposure is, are questions for your solicitor. We are not in a position to answer them, and this page should not be read as trying to.

Scams that ride on the news

Whenever real letters are in the news, fake ones follow. Some points that do not require legal training:

• A genuine solicitor’s letter will not ask you to pay by gift voucher, cryptocurrency or a bank transfer to a personal account.
• Be wary of any phone call or email claiming to be a follow-up to a letter, especially one that creates urgency.
• A solicitor can confirm whether a letter is genuine and who sent it. Do that before responding to anything.

Research published by BeStreamWise Ireland in March 2025 found that people who used illegal streaming services lost an average of €2,302 to scams, against €382 for everyone else, and that 21 per cent believed they had been targeted because of it.

Going forward

Whatever you decide about the letter with your solicitor, the practical question of what to watch is separate, and easier.

RTÉ, Virgin Media and TG4 are free through Saorview. BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are free by satellite. Sport can be bought by the month for the part of the year it runs. The finder works out the cheapest legal combination for what you actually watch, and it lists the cheapest option first whether or not it pays us anything.

If you are replacing the service rather than only stopping it, how to switch to legal TV sets out the legal options and what they cost.