European cloud providers push back against Italy’s copyright levy

European providers have taken legal action against a decree by the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), a trade organization uniting European cloud providers, filed a lawsuit against a decree by the Italian Ministry of Culture.

This decree extends the traditional device tax on physical storage media, such as hard drives and blank discs, to cloud services, according to Heise.de.

The device – or private copying – levy has historically been used to compensate creative rights holders for consumers who make legal private copies of protected works such as music and movies.

CISPE, however, argues that the levy results in double taxation, because levies for cloud infrastructure hardware have already been paid upon acquisition.

The organization states that this disproportionately burdens providers and end customers, and raises the risk of fragmentation of the European market.

Moreover, cloud providers argue that consumption of digital media has changed. Content streamed on services like Spotify and Netflix is rarely replicated, while copyright holders are compensated via the streaming platforms.

In addition, the organization argues that the majority of data in the cloud consists of business and other documents that are not copyright-relevant, Heise.de reports.

Calls for scraping copyright levies

Copyright levies are an increasingly contentious issue in the age where the majority of media is streamed rather than owned – and copied.

Fewer than one in three (28.3%) Americans still rely on DVDs and Blu-rays to watch TV and movies, according to a 2025 survey. In Europe, 63-75% of the population is using streaming services on a daily basis.

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in 2026 that downloading media offline from streaming services like Netflix doesn’t constitute making a copy, rebutting Dutch copyright groups’ claims.

Therefore, companies like HP and Dell aren’t required to fund creators’ compensation through device levies.

Digital Europe, a trade association representing over 56,000 European businesses, called for reforming copyright levies in 2024.

Among the group’s proposals is Finland’s model, in which creators are compensated through the state budget, which Digital Europe says should ensure “fair compensation with reduced administrative costs.”

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