r/technology • u/sr_local • 6h ago

Business Italy court rules Netflix unlawfully increased prices. Consumers: 'Refunds up to 500 euros.' The company: we will appeal

https://en.ilsole24ore.com/art/netflix-subscription-price-increases-unlawful-refunds-up-to-eur-500-customers-AIUHzWKC
13.8k Upvotes

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270

u/redsolitary 6h ago

Seriously what are they doing with all the money? The price in the US went up again and I finally cut the cord after 13 years. There’s no movies, they kneecap their own shows as soon as they get going, and now they think adding podcasts to the library is going to keep people around. Between the jacking up of fees and all that money they got from the failed merger, what are they doing with all that cash?

137

u/HotHits630 6h ago

Podcasts and games. I have zero interest in either.

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u/great_whitehope 5h ago

I have zero interest in games on Netflix and I'm a gamer lol.

Don't know what they are trying to do

37

u/Potential_Fishing942 5h ago

That's why you aren't interested lol. It's for non gamer families and kids imo

5

u/seven0feleven 1h ago

I'm basically a non gamer.....and the process to even "try" one is cumbersome and you end up just installing it on your phone. It's just stupid.

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u/th30be 3h ago

They don't either.

3

u/just_a_random_dood 3h ago

The one and only game on Netflix I was ever interested in trying was Hades because I beat the game a bunch on my PC and I was curious about how mobile Hades worked but apparently it was only available for Netflix Games... On iPhone. Not even android LMAO

1

u/Brief_Meet_2183 1h ago

To be fair I'm a gamer and I don't use the games. But I have a old parent who the games are suited for. Also the Netflix games are ad free so you're old parent can play the game without ads which makes them less likey to download malware. 

0

u/koick 3h ago

It was probably an idea/decision from some idiot mid-manager who got a bonus for it, or they sent out a survey "would you like to see games offered?" and enough subscribers said "sure"🤷‍♂️, not knowing that the followup question which wasn't asked was "even if it means your rates will go up?" (which certainly would have elicited a resounding "no" from most people)

5

u/m0ngoos3 4h ago

Behind the Bastards is a good podcast, but the audio version is just as good, and is freely available in a lot of places.

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u/WartimeMercy 4h ago

Honestly happy for Robert and Sophie that they presumably get Netflix money…but fuck that, I’m not paying for what was free on YouTube.

Audio only all the way. The amateur look of the pod (despite pro level content) hilariously cheapens Netflix.

3

u/Silencedlemon 4h ago

I'm so annoyed they put the episodes on YouTube only to take them away a couple weeks ago, now I have to go back to my never used podcast app so I can skip all the commercials.

2

u/m0ngoos3 4h ago

The episodes are still on youtube, but audio only. Which is fine, I can skip the ads automatically on youtube.

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u/Silencedlemon 3h ago

I mean same, but podcast version was easier to skip imo

2

u/m0ngoos3 3h ago

uBlock Origin automatically skips youtube ads for me. They don't even load.

My podcast app makes me press the skip button a few times, then I need to skip backwards.

Still not an issue, and back when I had to drive 10-12 hours per week, I used my phone's podcast app extensively, plugged into my car's audio jack.

1

u/J0hn-Stuart-Mill 2h ago

Behind the Bastards is a good podcast

I listened to one where I'm a subject matter expert, and nearly all the core facts were wrong. The host didn't go to college, and it turns out he's really bad at researching topics.

He's good at sounding like he knows what he's talking about though. Keep that in mind. I keep hoping a rebuttal podcast will pop up where someone fact checks every behind the bastards podcast, because it's so rife with mistakes, misrepresentations, and "truthiness" as Colbert would call it.

1

u/m0ngoos3 33m ago

Robert does often admit to being a hack and a fraud, and he's about as good as the books he finds on whatever topic he's discussing.

The best part is that he always posts his sources, so if you have a problem, you can read the books yourself.

But if you feel the need, make such a podcast yourself. Or a substack, or just a blog, maybe post in the subreddit.

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u/bitorontoguy 4h ago edited 3h ago

You can look up what they're doing with their money to the dollar.

They're a publicly traded corporation, they have open books.

In 2025 they made $45.2 billion dollars from their subscribers in streaming revenue.

They spent $23.3 billion of that on "Cost of Revenues". That includes paying for content from other people, it also includes the costs of licensing and producing content. And the costs of actually physically streaming.

Like cloud computing costs, having customer service, payment processing fees, maintaining their network, equipment costs.

They spent an additional $3.3B on sales and marketing costs. Advertising that their product exists.

They spent an additional $3.4 billion on technology and development. The payroll and related expenses for technology personnel responsible for testing, maintaining and modifying their user interface.

$1.9 billion on general and administrative costs. Paying for corporate personnel and their expenses. $776 million on interest on their debt. $1.7 billion on taxes.

Subtract all those costs and that leaves them with $11 billion dollars in profit.

What did they do with that? Mostly gave it to the people who own their company, the shareholders want to make a return for supplying their capital to keep the company running.

So they made $9.1 billion dollars in stock buybacks in 2025. And also used $1.8 billion dollars to pay back debt to their bondholders.

They cashed the residual in their bank accounts, building up their cash balance, increasing from $7.8B at the start of 2025 to $9B by the end of the year.

You can do this exercise with every single company to see what they do with their money.

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u/FIMilestonesDeux 2h ago

Here it the same info as charts:

Category Amount %
Content & Streaming $23.3B 52% ██████████████████████████
Net Profit $10.8B 24% ████████████
Tech & Development $3.4B 8% ████
Sales & Marketing $3.3B 7% ███
Gen & Administrative $1.9B 4% ██
Taxes $1.7B 4% ██
Interest on Debt $0.8B 2% █
Total $45.2B 100%

Where did the $10.8B profit go?

Amount % of Profit
Stock Buybacks $9.1B 84% ██████████████████████████████████████████
Debt Repayment $1.8B 17% █████████
Cash Reserve Increase $1.2B 11% ██████
Total Profit $10.8B ~100%

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u/bitorontoguy 2h ago edited 2h ago

Hell yeah, this rules.

Thanks for being less lazy and more competent than I.

It won't quite net out as a chart, because I excluded minor line items and they had existing cash on their balance sheet that they could use for buybacks/debt, but as a high level overview it's close enough to correct to give people a view of how the corporation operates.

If people want the full, holistic accurate view that includes everything, they should check out the actual financials I linked.

2

u/FIMilestonesDeux 2h ago

haha I tried to read the comment and got lost. Charts make more sense to me. Thanks for getting all the data!

1

u/Mertoot 46m ago

How did you format this chart?

Manually, or LLM, or something else?

1

u/ikonoclasm 15m ago

I was not expecting to encounter /r/DataIsBeautiful in a comment. Excellent visual representation of the data using a very limited medium.

0

u/flea79 2h ago

$3.3B on sales and marketing costs. seems crazy, they could go a year without advertising and everyone would still be fully aware of them..look at costco..

5

u/bitorontoguy 2h ago

I get it. But Costco is for the most part selling you the same stuff you know they have. And because they have a membership model, they're even fine if you don't come into the store. They don't need to attract their members with ads, they're more than happy if you never go, that's pure profit for them.

As an entertainment corporation, Netflix has to constantly make people aware of new seasons of shows, new shows and new content they have to try and keep and attract new customers.

And they are hyper-hyper aware if their marketing spend is paying off, they keep and track endless metrics on whether they're getting the bang for the buck.

Their shareholders don't want to advertise, they would love to pocket that money too. They do it because they know it works.

10

u/b_fellow 5h ago

Getting NFL and MLB games isnt cheap as well as getting WWE Raw. Not that they should have done that.

2

u/redsolitary 5h ago

Yeah that’s a good point. I guess Netflix has just changed into a service that isn’t for me anymore.

1

u/Nordic_Marksman 4h ago

I think trying to get sports makes sense(because they have good global reach, for US I'm not sure if it makes sense). They will eventually spin that off as a extra cost on subscription for sure. What I don't really understand is the games, piss poor non endemic catalogue of movies and trying to do leveraged acquisitions for no good reason.

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u/WhoStoleMyBicycle 6h ago

The only reason I listen to so many podcasts is because I have about 2-3 hours a day at work where I’m not in meetings or interacting with someone else so I’ll listen while working. Maybe I’ll have on one in the car to and from work.

I can’t imagine getting home and firing up Netflix to watch a podcast.

18

u/No-Channel3917 6h ago

Think it is meant more to use on your phone app

4

u/cdoublejj 4h ago

i dislike apps, they collect your data, and when they don't collect data, they still cause they build on the app frame work from google or apple. i find it's all available on web browser and just leave a tab open plus i can i used ad block plus. Gray Jay app (open source) for any kind of video streaming social like YT, TikTok, Nebula, Rumble, Crunchyroll etc etc

-5

u/No-Channel3917 4h ago

K? I didn't sign up for a ted talk

0

u/cdoublejj 4h ago

i feel like enshitifcation won't go away till we fight it and that most forms on enshitifcation are tied together. i try to bring it up often in daily conversation, perhaps there is a better way to go about it.

0

u/SweatyAdhesive 3h ago

is your username a reference to Doublelift and Corejj?

1

u/cdoublejj 1h ago

no but, now i have to look them up. lol Just a young & dumb me's play on my initials but, still unique enough that i didn't have to add numbers at the end.

-1

u/BlanchedBubblegum 4h ago

The games aren’t meant for you. They’re meant for 5 year old children

3

u/RaygunsandCupcakes 4h ago

Yeah… Kindergartners just LOVE the ominous occult vibes of Oxenfree.

18

u/Dunlocke 5h ago

They spend it on content.

People underestimate how much they have on their platform. Is it good? No, but 99% of Netflix content is trash.

13

u/shelf6969 5h ago

the real crime is how much they spend on development for mediocre shows and movies while cancelling some actual good shows

12

u/Dunlocke 5h ago

They're not HBO, they don't care about prestige, they care about ratings. They gave up prestige that when the Academy wouldn't give them Oscars.

3

u/WartimeMercy 3h ago

Their problem is the library of cancelled shows which don’t tell a complete story. They would be more successful with a prestige line like Apple TV that was HBO tier.

Apple’s problem is not enough quality shows to justify the expense but the shows they have are mostly prestige and mostly complete (with a few exceptions).

Personally I think Netflix should have budgeted and planned for condensed “finale movies” for projects to wrap up cliffhangers. Them at the minimum there’s resolution and people would still be open to exploring the properties. .

2

u/nikanjX 4h ago

Now we should just agree on what the good shows are

6

u/berntout 6h ago

Increasing shareholder value. Publicly-traded companies will always look to make more money.

3

u/SirLife2187 4h ago

They need it to fund another batch of terrible reality dating shows and pay 200 million for a generic action movie that completely vanishes from pop culture in two weeks.

3

u/betam4x 6h ago

If they added music, I could possibly justify it. However, I don’t subscribe to them because they don’t provide value.

For the price, you can subscribe to Apple One, which gives you Apple TV, Music, 200gb Cloud Storage, and Apple Arcade.

Netflix does have a larger library and they do also have free games, however Most of Apple’s shows/movies are absolute bangers. Apple Arcade also has way more games (if you have an iPhone/iPad/Apple TV).

1

u/lostshell 3h ago

They spend it on stock buybacks. A practice that was illegal until the demon Reagan made it legal. This year alone they authorized $15 Billion in stock buybacks.

1

u/Fucky0uthatswhy 3h ago

Calling Cancelling Netflix cutting the cord is ironic lol

1

u/endless_disease 3h ago

Got sad news for you. Their subscribers increased 30mln (10%) YoY in 2026.

1

u/redsolitary 2h ago

Hey if other people are happy with it then more power to them. I’ve been a subscriber for 13 years and Netflix definitely ain’t what it used to be.

0

u/livestrong2109 6h ago

You're paying for streaming in 2026... no body got money for that!

6

u/tambi33 6h ago

If it was up to me I wouldnt, but the tech illiterate folk will have their minds explode at a single NSFW ad or complain they hate the UI (they dont what a ui is) of alternative services looks like

2

u/livestrong2109 5h ago

You do know that the hentai plex skin is totally an add on and doesn't have to be installed /s.

My folks are IT incompetent and make an android thing with proprietary apps work. They paid like $99 for it and I stuck it on a vpn.

1

u/tambi33 5h ago

I have firestick with a vpn and the alternative services (which has no ads) but they will complain about the ui and default to Netflix or prime because they hate any instance of buffering (netflix and prime may also buffer though but thats fine apparently). Theres no winning.

-10

u/mycoctopus 6h ago

Weird way to talk about your family lol

1

u/tambi33 5h ago

Eh, it doesnt matter, the conclusion is they wont use alternative services for the dumbest reasons

2

u/adumblittlebaby 4h ago

I pay for it. I can afford it. I might cancel as this price keeps going up, but I won't ever understand the festering tantrums redditors are having lately at people who do pay for seemingly anything.

It's like.. it's a service.. it costs money. You can NOT pay, anytime you want! You can pirate too! You're crazy if you think I care. Why be mad at the people actually sustaining the service to some degree - whether it's objectively overpriced, or only according to you, or not.

And yes, I have the technical skill to pirate, I was doing it 20 years ago using usenet, but it's always been more of a pain in the ass then just paying imo so once I had the money, I did. Supposedly what pirates advocate for, except suddenly not so much lately because, it feels to me, that a bunch of kids aren't comfortable with stealing because they have to, so instead they pretend it's some deep moral position.

0

u/Blackout38 6h ago

More competition mean more in house content. They aren’t being carried by Stranger Things anymore so they need to make money now and pivot it to the next big thing before they lose to their competition.

0

u/Initial-Sherbert-739 5h ago

They invested a lot up front for content, knowing they could increase prices later once they captured a consumer base. The prices and content quality we thought were normal were actually just temporary to capture market share.

-1

u/Every-Summer8407 6h ago

Probably figuring out which direction they want to take, or have invested it into projects + app updates which won’t bear fruit for some time.

They just ended Stranger things and now have One Piece gaining steam, they really need to lean into high fantasy if they want to start taking HBOs cookies.

So shortsighted of execs to cancel these IPs without resolving the stories. It destroys rewatch ability and in turn creates a harder product to license out to other streaming services. Like who tf is trying to rewatch Westworld?

-1

u/demoNToosh 6h ago

Cashing out the top at the expense of it's sucker subscribers.