- Italy’s Piratkopying shield has led to European legislators control
- The EU Commission sent a letter to Italian Foreign Minister to warn that it may not be in line with EU’s digital services
- Italy’s anti-piracy system has so far led to significant overpowering events that triggered strong criticism
Italy’s notorious anti-piracy system, piracy screen, can violate European law.
On June 13, 2025, the EU Commission sent a letter to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who warned that the piracy screen may not be in line with the rules of Digital Services (DSA). The system, said legislators, may even undermine the fundamental rights of citizens to freedom of expression and information, as ruled by the EU’s charter of fundamental rights.
Italy’s piracy shield allows authorities to not only require ISPs, but also VPN and DNS providers, to block suspected pirated content within 30 minutes. A function praised by rather in the country, which also led to significant overpowering events and triggered strong criticism throughout the industry.
What’s wrong with Italy’s piracy screen?
Italy first enforced its piracy system in February 2024 to prevent citizens from accessing live sporting events through pirate places, especially football matches. To do so, the courts may require piracy-related domain names and IP addresses suspected of copyright infringement within 30 minutes.
The Italian anti-piracy system has certainly proven to be effective. Nevertheless, tech companies have raised concerns about the EU authorities about several overpowering events that have even affected, among other things, legitimate Google domains.
Specifically, Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) warned against a lack of transparency in relation to the blockage and a lack of support for these places that are unlawfully blocked.
These concerns have given rise to an EU study of the technical details of Italy’s anti-piracy system, which has highlighted a few notable questions.
Legislators pointed out how DSA “does not provide a legal basis for issuing orders from national administrative or legal authorities, nor does it regulate the enforcement of such orders,” inviting Italian authorities to clarify how these procedures meet the DSA requirements in the final text.
Of crucial importance also emphasizes that “the effective tackling of illegal content must also take into account the basic right of freedom of expression and information under the Charter of the EU’s fundamental rights.”
This point is probably linked to the Italian communication regulator AGCOM’s decision to demand DNS and Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers to actively block alleged illegal currents upon request.
Privacy experts and technologists have previously pointed out that targeting VPN providers could have “sweeping consequences” for people’s internet security and privacy. In fact, a VPN provider (AirVPN) has already stopped accepting new Italian subscribers.
“A model of what to do not do”
Although we have to wait to see if the EU Commission’s comments will change how Italy handles illegal streaming in the future, it is certainly not an isolated case.
Other European countries have increasingly used such a blockage of infrastructure level against pirated or other harmful content, creating concerns among the industry.
For example, France has recently taken a strong attitude against VPN providers. Following a successful trial against DNS services in 2024, on May 15, 2025, Paris Judicial supported Court Canal +’s request and ordered five of Techradar’s best VPN services – NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and Cyberghost – to block access to 203 domains associated with illegal sports.
Spanish sports -flow giants, Laliga and Telefónica, have also increasingly issued IP blocking orders since February 2025. Again, this tactics have led to many overpowering events, with Google types, institutional websites and payment platforms among the legitimate domains that are wrongly blocked. This is why US-based DNS Giant Cloudflare is fighting for court to solve these questions before the next Laliga season.
Nevertheless, according to the CEO of I2Coalition, Christian Dawson, the worst example is the worst example out there.
Dawson said to Techradar: “The number of problems we see with Italy’s piracy shield is remarkable and we want the rest of Europe to see it as a cautionary tale. We do However, concerns that many other Member States look at Italy’s piracy screen as a model, and we think it is a model of exactly what not to do. “
