The French courts have ruled in favor of Nintendo and confirmed that the hosting site 1fichier must remove all pirated video games that it hosts. The platform had appealed a decision handed down in 2023.
Nintendo doesn't like piracy. An understatement when you see how far the manufacturer is prepared to go to ban anything that comes close to it. Most often, it shuts down well-known emulators like Yuzu, but not only. Several years ago, it sued Dstorage, the parent company, among others, of the French online storage site 1fichier. The latter is accused of leaving pirated copies of Nintendo games on its platform and of doing nothing to combat the phenomenon.
In 2023, Nintendo won its case against 1fichier, which immediately appealed the decision. In the meantime, the service did not improve its reputation since in January 2025, it was on the list of pirate sites to be taken down by an American agency. Finally, the Court of Cassation ruled in favor of the Japanese company in a ruling issued on February 26. As this is the highest court that can be brought before, the decision is final.
Nintendo wins against the 1fichier site, it will have to remove the pirated games it hosts
In a press release, Nintendo states that according to the Court, Dstorage “was liable for civil liability, for failing to remove or block access to illicit copies of Nintendo games hosted on its platform, despite the notifications Nintendo had sent to it for this purpose“. It is not the only one concerned: “Services hosting shared content in France and in Europe, such as 1fichier.com, must quickly remove or block access to illicit content“.
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By making this decision, “shared content hosting services like 1Fichier.com can no longer claim that a prior court decision is required to remove illegal content“. It's a safe bet that Nintendo will send other requests in the coming weeks. It remains to be seen whether the move will actually be useful. Technically, nothing prevents these sites from once again hosting pirated games that have been made more difficult to identified as such by the people who put them online.
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