Streaming giant to appeal against court ruling.A court in Rome has ruled that Netflix's subscription price increases in Italy between 2017 and 2024 were unlawful, ordering the streaming company to reimburse affected subscribers and reduce its current prices.The ruling was issued in response to an injunction brought by the Italian consumer group Movimento Consumatori against Netflix Italia, Reuters reports. The court found that the clauses permitting subscription price hikes between 2017 and January 2024 were unfair and invalid because they did not indicate a justified reason for the increases.  Major setback The judgment represents a significant legal setback for the US company in one of its major European markets.  The ruling voids the relevant contract clauses and orders current subscription prices to be rolled back to their 2015 launch levels: €11.99 for the premium plan and €9.99 for the standard plan. The increases ruled unlawful were applied in 2017, 2019, 2021 and November 2024, for contracts signed before January 2024. Lawyers representing the consumers argued that for the premium plan the unlawful increases amount to €8 per month, and for the standard plan to €4 per month. A premium subscriber who has held a continuous subscription since 2017 could be entitled to a refund of approximately €500, while a standard subscriber would be due approximately €250, according to lawyers who represented consumers in the case, Reuters reports. Appeal Netflix, which has around 5.4 million users in Italy, has 90 days to comply with the notification and price-reduction obligations, or risk penalties for non-compliance. Movimento Consumatori president Alessandro Mostaccio warned that if Netflix did not immediately reduce prices and reimburse customers, the group would initiate a class action to ensure all users recovered what had been unduly paid. Netflix said it would appeal. "We will appeal the decision. 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. Bigger picture The Italian ruling does not stand alone. In Germany, the federation of consumer organisations vzbv has brought a parallel action against Netflix on the same legal basis, and courts in Berlin and Cologne have already ruled that price changes based on generic formulas are void because they do not allow users to understand the actual reasons for cost increases. Consumer groups in Spain have filed similar challenges. The cases hinge on EU Directive 93/13/EEC, which prohibits unfair terms in standard consumer contracts, and raise the prospect that, if the Rome court's interpretation is upheld on appeal or replicated elsewhere in Europe, the commercial model underlying a decade of streaming price increases would require fundamental redesign across the sector. The ruling came just days after Netflix had announced a global price increase on 26 March, raising subscription costs across every major market. Photo credit: MAXSHOT.PL / Shutterstock.com

A court in Rome has ruled that Netflix's subscription price increases in Italy between 2017 and 2024 were unlawful, ordering the streaming company to reimburse affected subscribers and reduce its current prices. The ruling was issued in response to an injunction brought by the Italian consumer group Movimento Consumatori against Netflix Italia, Reuters reports. The court found that the clauses permitting subscription price hikes between 2017 and January 2024 were unfair and invalid because they did not indicate a justified reason for the increases.  The judgment represents a significant legal setback for the US company in one of its major European markets.  The ruling voids the relevant contract clauses and orders current subscription prices to be rolled back to their 2015 launch levels: €11.99 for the premium plan and €9.99 for the standard plan. The increases ruled unlawful were applied in 2017, 2019, 2021 and November 2024, for contracts signed before January 2024. Lawyers representing the consumers argued that for the premium plan the unlawful increases amount to €8 per month, and for the standard plan to €4 per month. A premium subscriber who has held a continuous subscription since 2017 could be entitled to a refund of approximately €500, while a standard subscriber would be due approximately €250, according to lawyers who represented consumers in the case, Reuters reports. Netflix, which has around 5.4 million users in Italy, has 90 days to comply with the notification and price-reduction obligations, or risk penalties for non-compliance. Movimento Consumatori president Alessandro Mostaccio warned that if Netflix did not immediately reduce prices and reimburse customers, the group would initiate a class action to ensure all users recovered what had been unduly paid. Netflix said it would appeal. "We will appeal the decision. 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. The Italian ruling does not stand alone. In Germany, the federation of consumer organisations vzbv has brought a parallel action against Netflix on the same legal basis, and courts in Berlin and Cologne have already ruled that price changes based on generic formulas are void because they do not allow users to understand the actual reasons for cost increases. Consumer groups in Spain have filed similar challenges. The cases hinge on EU Directive 93/13/EEC, which prohibits unfair terms in standard consumer contracts, and raise the prospect that, if the Rome court's interpretation is upheld on appeal or replicated elsewhere in Europe, the commercial model underlying a decade of streaming price increases would require fundamental redesign across the sector. The ruling came just days after Netflix had announced a global price increase on 26 March, raising subscription costs across every major market. Photo credit: MAXSHOT.PL / Shutterstock.com