Italy Fines Cloudflare €14M Over Refusal to Block Pirate Sites

Italy Fines Cloudflare €14M Over Pirate Site Blocking Dispute

Italy has issued a record €14.2 million fine to Cloudflare after the company refused to block pirate sites via its public 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver.

The fine was imposed by Italy’s communications regulator AGCOM, which accused Cloudflare of failing to comply with the country’s anti-piracy rules under its Piracy Shield system.

What Is Piracy Shield?

Launched in 2024, Piracy Shield was designed to fight large-scale piracy, especially live sports streaming.
The system allows authorities to block piracy-related domains and IP addresses within 30 minutes.

Since its launch, tens of thousands of domains have been blocked. But the system has also sparked controversy, mainly due to overblocking, where legitimate sites were accidentally taken offline.

Cloudflare has been one of the most vocal critics of Piracy Shield.

The 1.1.1.1 Dispute

The conflict centers on AGCOM Order 49/25/CONS, issued in February 2025.
The order required DNS providers and VPN services to block access to domains and IPs linked to copyright infringement.

Cloudflare refused to apply these blocks to its global 1.1.1.1 DNS service.
The company argued that filtering the resolver would be technically unreasonable, affect billions of daily requests, and significantly harm performance for users worldwide.

AGCOM rejected this argument.

According to the regulator, Cloudflare has the technical resources to implement targeted blocking and is not merely a neutral intermediary. AGCOM also noted that Cloudflare infrastructure is connected to a large share of the pirate sites targeted under the Piracy Shield regime.

A €14 Million Fine

After reviewing the case, AGCOM fined Cloudflare €14,247,698, roughly 1% of the company’s global revenue.
The law allows fines of up to 2%.

AGCOM described the decision as one of the first major financial penalties of its kind in the copyright sector and emphasized Cloudflare’s central role in enabling pirate sites to bypass traditional blocking measures.

What Happens Next?

Cloudflare has strongly contested the ruling and is expected to appeal.
Shortly after the decision, CEO Matthew Prince confirmed publicly that the company will fight the fine, calling it unjust and harmful to democratic values.

Cloudflare also warned it may scale back operations in Italy, including free cybersecurity services and future investments.

Meanwhile, AGCOM says it will continue enforcing Piracy Shield. Since early 2024, the system has blocked more than 65,000 domains and 14,000 IP addresses.

This case sends a clear message:
anti-piracy enforcement is no longer limited to pirate sites themselves. Infrastructure providers are increasingly being pulled into the spotlight — and held accountable.