Netflix and Amazon challenge Agcom at the Tar: 'No to obligations like telcos'

Netflix, Amazon Web Services (Aws) and Cloudflare have filed separate appeals with the Lazio Regional Administrative Court against the decision by which Agcom last August decided to extend the general authorisation requirement, which under the Electronic Communications Code is imposed on all telcos, to companies that own, manage or control a Cdn (content delivery network). Cdn are the internet content distribution networks that power video streaming, cloud computing and much of the everyday digital experience.

In this way, however, Netflix points out in response to a request for comment from Sole 24 Ore, Agcom ends up equating the networks that transport data over fibre with the private infrastructures on which films and series of streaming platforms travel.

For the company, therefore, this is a legal error and a counterproductive industrial policy idea. "We have appealed against a decision that in fact regulates Cdn and companies like Netflix as if they were a telecommunications service. There is no legal basis to support it and it is contrary to European and Italian law," the company emphasises. Amazon Web Services (Aws) is on the same line, with an Italian representative noting: "Cdn are fundamentally different from electronic communication networks. This is a new attempt to introduce a regulatory framework that imposes network taxes," with the effect for companies that use public Cdn of "incurring higher costs, suffering a deterioration in the quality of service, or both. Aws confirms its commitment to working with the Italian authorities "to ensure a regulatory framework that supports innovation" while maintaining competitiveness.

Cdn, they point out from Netflix, which just a few days ago celebrated the tenth anniversary of its presence in Italy, are servers strategically placed close to users to reduce the distance a video has to travel. They do not carry third-party data. And this is one of the reasons why equating them with telcos is seen as a mistake.

Instead, Agcom, headed by Giacomo Lasorella, argues that Cdn are to all intents and purposes networks capable of transmitting signals, and therefore subject to authorisation under the Electronic Communications Code. A choice in the wake of the Dazn case of 2021, when the Authority intervened after the inefficiencies in the first days of Serie A. But for Netflix, the comparison does not hold up, or at any rate it is not a precedent to be generalised.