Italian Police Shuts Down Massive Piracy Network Impacting Netflix and Amazon Prime

Italian police recently made headlines for shutting down a massive piracy network that was wreaking havoc on popular streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. Reports indicate that over 22 million users were accessing this illegal platform, racking up an estimated €250 million per month and causing billions in losses for the streaming giants.

A large-scale transnational video piracy network in Europe has been dismantled by the police, with operations spanning Italy and other European countries. Italian police, along with Eurojust, Europol, and several European police forces, collaborated on this effort. The operation, named “Operation Takedown,” involved 270 officers conducting searches across 15 Italian regions and 14 other European countries, leading to 11 arrests.

The impact of this piracy network on pay-TV companies was significant. Reportedly, the illegal platform generated over €250 million per month and caused approximately €10 billion in losses for major companies like Sky, Dazn, Mediaset, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount, and Disney+. Those involved are expected to face charges related to copyright infringement, computer fraud, unauthorized access to computer systems, and possession of access codes.

Earlier this year, in August, Vietnamese authorities, in collaboration with the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), successfully shut down Fmovies, the largest pirate streaming operation in the world. Fmovies and its affiliated sites garnered over 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024, leading to the arrest of two suspects. This notorious illegal streaming network, launched in 2016, included popular sites like bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer, and aniwave, making it a major source for illegal streaming content.

ACE, a coalition combatting digital piracy with members like Netflix, Disney, and Warner Bros., celebrated the closure of Fmovies as a significant victory for the creative community. These recent actions demonstrate a growing effort to combat piracy and protect the content creators in the entertainment industry.