A court in Rome has declared them illegal, because they were based on contract clauses considered abusive, which allowed fees to be raised unilaterally. And it has opened the door for the platform to return the money overcharged to clients, with amounts that in some cases could reach 500 euros. The audiovisual giant has announced that it will appeal the ruling because it considers that the conditions of its services have always respected Italian regulations.
The Roman court has upheld the lawsuit filed by a consumer rights association, Movimento Consumatori, against the American entertainment company. And it has determined that the clauses that allowed the price of subscriptions and other contractual conditions to be unilaterally modified from 2017 to January 2024 are considered abusive and therefore void for legal purposes.
These provisions of the contract allowed modifications to the conditions of subscriptions without indicating a justified reason. Affected subscribers will be entitled to a reduction in the current subscription price, a refund of amounts unduly paid and possible compensation for damages. “Netflix has applied illegal increases for years. It has not included in the contracts a clause required by the Consumer Code to justify the reason for the increase. It has only introduced it in the contracts from January 2024,” explained Paolo Fiorio, lawyer at Movimento Consumatori.
The ruling of the Rome court, to which EL PAÍS has had access, describes the price changes of the entertainment platform’s subscriptions as “abusive” and “illegitimate.” “The illegality of the conduct consisting of the unilateral modification of the price and the regulatory conditions, without justified reason indicated in the contract, gives rise to the right of any consumer who has suffered, within the framework of the contracts concluded between 2017 and January 2024, the increase in prices and, from 2017 to April 2025, modifications in the conditions of service, to the return of amounts unduly paid and to possible compensation for damages,” .
The court forces Netflix to publish the 49-page court ruling on its website – it will also be published in national media such as The Corriere della Sera e Il Sole 24 ore– and notify affected consumers. The judge gives the platform a period of 90 days to comply with the precautionary measures imposed, that is, to notify users by email that they have the right to a refund of the overcharged for illegitimate subscription increases.
Lawyer Paolo Fiorio explained that “the judge has asked that affected clients, including former ones, be notified to inform them that they are entitled to a refund.” And he pointed out: “you must propose a new contract that includes the clause in question.” Users will be able to choose between rejecting the contract and, therefore, unsubscribing from Netflix or accepting it with the new prices.
The consumer association, which has assured that it will help those affected to recover the overcharged fees, estimates that the ruling affects millions of users in Italy, since it is estimated that in the transalpine country Netflix went from having 1.9 million customers in 2019 to about 5.4 million in October 2025. They have also calculated the refunds to which consumers could be entitled. “In the case of the plan premiumthe illegitimate increases applied in the years 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2024 today amount to a total of 8 euros per month, while in the case of the standard plan the increases today amount to a total of 4 euros per month,” reads a statement from the organization. In this way, a subscriber premium Anyone who has paid Netflix continuously since 2017 is entitled to a refund of around 500 euros, while a standard customer is entitled to a refund of around 250 euros, according to calculations by the consumer association’s legal team.
The ruling also gives Netflix the option, as an alternative, to reduce the price of current subscriptions to the same level they had before the increases. For example, a client premium who activated their subscription in 2017 and who pays 19.99 euros is entitled to the same service for a fee of 11.99 euros, while a customer standard who pays 13.99 euros, should pay 9.99 euros,” says the association.
A Netflix spokesperson explained to this newspaper that the company will file an appeal against the court decision. “Our subscribers are above all else. We take consumer rights very seriously and we believe that our conditions have always been in line with Italian regulations and practices,” he noted. Movimento Consumatori has warned that if Netflix does not voluntarily refund its customers the amount of the undue increases, it will initiate a class action “to ensure that all injured users recover what they have unduly paid.” In Spain, the consumer association Facua already denounced the platform in 2021 because it then considered that the price increase of its plans violated the legislation, but there has been no legal progress since then.
