Netflix and No Chill: The First Instance Court of Rome slams unilateral price hikes in subscription services

In a landmark judgment delivered on 1 April 2026, the Court of First Instance of Rome held that Netflix could not rely on contractual clauses allowing it to unilaterally increase subscription prices or modify key contractual terms without clearly specified and objectively verifiable reasons. The ruling constitutes one of the earliest applications of Italy’s new representative action regime implementing Directive (EU) 2020/1828 and may have implications well beyond Italy.