Piracy/Cloudflare: "No company can consider itself above the law" (L. De Siervo, Lega Serie A)

"These comments (by Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, on X on 09/01/2026) are unacceptable. All I saw was a great deal of aggression and a sense of superiority over European regulations. No company can consider itself above the law," said Luigi De Siervo, CEO of Lega Serie A, to the Italian media Il Sole 24 Ore on 14/01/2026.

Cloudflare was fined €14.2m on 08/01/2026 for failing to comply with an AGCOM order aimed at combating the illegal distribution of content in Italy. The authority notably accused the American service provider of failing to block access to illegal content streams reported by rights holders via the Piracy Shield platform. Launched in Italy by AGCOM on 01/02/2024, the platform enables websites broadcasting content illegally - including live sports streams - to be blocked within 30 minutes of being reported.

In response, Matthew Prince said he would "fight the unjust fine," which he deemed "wrong for democratic values." Potential measures put forward by the CEO to challenge this ruling include "discontinuing the millions of dollars in pro bono cyber security…