Cloudflare threatens Italy exit after $16m anti-piracy fine

Cloudflare has threatened to stop providing services in Italy, including support for the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, after being fined €14 million (US$16 million) by Italy’s communications authority Agcom for not blocking online piracy.

Agcom issued the fine for Cloudflare’s alleged failure to comply with anti-piracy regulations, specifically not disabling content flagged under the “Piracy Shield” system, which requires providers to block reported pirated streams within 30 minutes.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince criticized the system, citing lack of judicial oversight, transparency, and an appeal process, and said the company will challenge the fine in court.

Prince also noted Cloudflare could remove its servers from Italy and halt planned investments in the country.

🔗 Source: Agence France-Presse

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Italy’s Piracy Shield faces transparency complaints as courts back enforcement

A Milan court ruled on December 19 2024 that Cloudflare’s content delivery network (CDN), Domain Name System (DNS) and reverse proxy services (a server layer in front of websites to cache traffic, protect them) help piracy 1. The decision set a precedent for intermediary liability (when infrastructure providers can be held responsible under certain conditions) and imposed a €10,000 daily fine for non-compliance.
Agcom, Italy’s communications authority, set a €14.2 million penalty equal to 1% of Cloudflare’s 2024 global revenue to deter breaches beyond Italy 2.
Cloudflare argued it cannot filter 200 billion daily DNS requests 3. Agcom rejected the claim and said the company has the capacity to comply given the scale its DNS services handle 3.
German courts in 2023 found Cloudflare liable under some conditions for copyright infringements 3. The outcome aligns with a European shift to hold infrastructure providers accountable 3.

Milano-Cortina 2026 contracts in play for CDN and cybersecurity firms amid possible Cloudflare exit

Cloudflare threatened to pull its pro bono cybersecurity services for Milano-Cortina 2026 4. Games host an International Security Briefing on September 30, 2025 for law enforcement and cybersecurity agency directors 4.
Juniper Networks won the role of official secure Internet Protocol (IP) network provider for the Games and will run multi-site infrastructure with its AI-Native Networking Platform (an automated network management and security suite) 5.
Rapiscan (a security screening equipment vendor) partnered with Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 (the Games’ organizing foundation) to deploy screening systems at competition venues 6.
Managed cybersecurity and CDN firms should track Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 procurement notices. Pitch offers that meet Olympics security needs and Italian regulatory rules to win contracts before February 2026.