News

18 July 2022 – IFPI, the organisation that represents the recording industry worldwide, has coordinated successful action taken by its members companies in Italy (Sony Music Entertainment Italy s.p.a., Universal Music Entertainment Italy s.r.l., Warner Music Italia s.r.l.) against CloudFlare. Following an application, supported locally by Italian anti-piracy group, FPM, and IFPI’s national group FIMI, the Court of Milan has issued an interim injunction ordering Cloudflare to stop providing services for users to access three copyright infringing BitTorrent sites that Italy’s regulator, AGCOM, previously ordered to be blocked online.

Frances Moore, Chief Executive, IFPI, commented: “CloudFlare’s services were making it possible for users to access copyright infringing websites which were ordered to be blocked by the Italian regulator AGCOM. These sites divert revenues away from licensed music services and ultimately those investing in and creating music. By ordering CloudFlare to stop providing access to these sites, the Court of Milan has made an important ruling that we believe sends a clear message to other online intermediaries that they too may be subject to action if their services are used for music piracy.”

Enzo Mazza, CEO, FIMI, commented: “We welcome the Court’s decision which will further strengthen the ongoing infringing site blocking programme performed by AGCOM in Italy, whilst also increasing the efficiency of the enforcement actions carried out by the rightsholders to protect their online content”

CloudFlare has been given 30 days in which to implement technical measures to stop users accessing the identified sites via its public DNS service. Failure to do so after this period will result in a daily fine. CloudFlare is also required to block any future domains from which these sites may operate.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

About IFPI

IFPI is the voice of the recording industry worldwide, representing over 8,000 record company members across the globe. We work to promote the value of recorded music, campaign for the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music around the world.

For further information please contact:

press@ifpi.org | +44 (0)20 7878 7979