- Netflix is told to refund price hikes to customers in Italy
- A court ruled the price contravened the country’s Consumer Code
- Similar cases happening worldwide are unlikely
Netflix prices keep on rising, and customers are fighting back — in Italy at least. A court in Rome just ruled that the streaming giant has to pay back up to €500 (about $585 / £435 / AU$830) for price hikes stretching back to 2019.
According to the lawyers representing consumers in Italy (via Ars Technica), the “unlawful increases” cover price increases in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2024. The exact refund figure depends when a subscriber signed up, and on what plan.
What’s more, Netflix has to return each customer to the price point they were at when they originally subscribed. As you might expect, Netflix has appealed against the decision, which is going to slow down the refund process — the streaming company says its terms and conditions have always “been in line with Italian law and practice”.
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The case hinges on the Consumer Code in Italy, which states that a “justified reason” for price increases must be written into a contract. However, even in Italy, the situation has now changed: in April 2025, Netflix changed its terms so that future price increases are built in. Going forward, there won’t be the chance of any more refunds.
Perhaps not the start of a trend
Italian court says Netflix must refund customers up to $576 over price hikes from r/technology
Any chance of consumers in other countries getting similar recompense seems slim, despite occasional historical cases like the one in Italy. The Consumer Code is specific to Italy, and while countries like the US and UK have their own consumer protections, Netflix has been careful to stay on the right side of laws and regulations.
Most of the time, all Netflix has to do is give subscribers enough notice about a price hike, and provide the option to cancel — which of course it does. That makes it difficult for lawsuits to be brought when Netflix viewers are acknowledging that price increases can happen when they sign up for a plan.
This may well end up being an isolated incident — and reactions online have generally been negative about Netflix and other streamers consistently upping their fees. The ruling “doesn’t fix the bigger issue of streaming becoming overpriced and fragmented again” says one Redditor.
Another user points out that we’re back to the cable TV stage: expensive fees, an increasing number of adverts, licensing issues, and the need to have multiple subscriptions on the go if you want to watch everything.
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