A Roman court has ruled that Netflix‘s (Nasdaq: NFLX) repeated subscription price increases between 2017 and 2024 violated Italian consumer law, ordering the streaming giant to refund millions of subscribers and roll back current prices to 2015 levels.
The Court of Rome’s Sixteenth Civil Section, ruling April 1, found that Netflix Italia imposed unjustified price hikes in 2017, 2019, 2021, and November 2024 without providing legally required justification in its subscriber contracts — a violation of Italy’s Consumer Code and EU Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair contract terms.
Consumer group Movimento Consumatori brought the lawsuit, arguing Netflix’s contracts gave the company broad latitude to raise prices with no contractually specified basis — making those clauses legally unenforceable.
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Under the ruling, Netflix must reduce its Premium plan from €19.99 to €11.99 per month and its Standard plan from €13.99 to €9.99 — restoring prices to their 2015 launch levels. Long-term Premium subscribers are entitled to refunds of approximately €500, while Standard subscribers may claim around €250.
Netflix has 90 days to notify current and former Italian subscribers of their refund rights via email, postal mail, its website, and notices in national newspapers. Failure to comply carries a daily penalty of €700. Movimento Consumatori president Alessandro Mostaccio warned the group would pursue a class action if refunds are not issued promptly.
Italy is Netflix’s fourth-largest European market, with approximately 5.4 million subscribers as of October 2025.
Netflix said it will appeal. “At Netflix, our subscribers come first. We take consumers’ rights very seriously and we believe that our conditions have always been in line with Italian regulations and practices,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.
The ruling carries implications beyond Italy. German courts in Berlin and Cologne have separately struck down the same Netflix pricing clauses, with the country’s vzbv consumer federation pursuing a parallel legal challenge on identical grounds. Poland’s consumer protection agency is separately pursuing the platform over its 2024 price increases, with potential fines reaching 10% of annual turnover.
Legal analysts warn that the implications extend to Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV Plus, all of which rely on comparable pricing frameworks across the EU. If appeals courts uphold the Rome ruling, streaming services across the bloc may need to overhaul how they handle subscription price changes entirely.
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