The CCIA added that “the Piracy Shield raises a significant number of concerns that could inadvertently impact legitimate online services, primarily due to the potential for overblocking.” The letter stated that in October 2024, “Google Drive was wrongly blocked by the Piracy Shield system, causing a three-hour blackout for all Italian users, while 13.5 percent of users were still blocked at the IP level and 3 percent after 12 hours at the DNS level.”
The Italian system “aims to automate the blocking process by allowing rights holders to submit IP addresses directly through the platform, after which ISPs must implement a blocking,” according to the CCIA. “Verification procedures between submission and blocking are not clear and indeed appear to be missing. Furthermore, there is a complete lack of recourse mechanisms for the parties involved, in case an incorrect domain or IP address is submitted and blocked.”
30-minute blocking prevents 'careful verification'
The 30-minute blocking period “leaves extremely limited time for careful verification by ISPs that the submitted destination is indeed being used for piracy purposes,” the CCIA said. The trade group also questioned the piracy reporting system's ties to the organization that runs Italy's top football league.
“In addition, the fact that the Piracy Shield platform for AGCOM was developed by a company affiliated with Lega Serie A, one of the few entities authorized to report, raises serious questions about the potential conflict of interest that exacerbates the problem of lack of transparency,” the letter said.
A trade group for Italian ISPs has argued that the law requires “filtering and tasks that conflict with individual freedoms” and conflicts with European law that classifies broadband network services as mere channels exempt from liability.
“On the contrary, in Italy criminal liability is expressly established for ISPs,” Dalia Coffetti, head of regulation and EU affairs at the Association of Italian Internet Service Providers, wrote in April 2025. Coffetti argued: “There are better tools to fight piracy, including criminal law, interstate cooperation and digital solutions that reduce the quality of the signal broadcast through illegal streaming websites or IPtv. European ISPs are ready to play their role in the fight against piracy, but the The solution certainly does not lie in lies.” when filtering and blocking IP addresses.”
