Netflix Sued in Italy by Local Actors’ Group as Ongoing Battle Over Residual Rights Rages
UPDATE: Italian collecting company Artisti 7607, which represents thousands of local acting and dubbing talents, has announced it is suing Netflix in a Rome court “to obtain adequate and proportionate compensation due by law to its mandated artists.”
Netflix disputes they are doing anything wrong.
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Artisti 7607, which was founded as a co-op more than a decade ago by a group of Italian A-list actors including Elio Germano — who in 2015 won top acting honors in Cannes with Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” — has long been doing battle with Netflix over residual rights.
“After more than eight years of sterile negotiations to obtain the data necessary to determine the compensation for artists in observance of European and national legislation, Artisti 7607 is forced to appeal to an ordinary court to request compliance with the law,” the indie collecting company said in a statement.
Artisti 7607 is suing Netflix in court after taking similar action with Italy’s media watchdog AGCOM, which in September 2023 tossed out the collecting company’s case – while acknowledging that Netflix was obliged to provide them viewer data – and urged both parties to negotiate an agreement.
“We believe in fair remuneration of performers,” Netflix commented in a statement, noting that they have had an agreement in place with Nuovo Imaie, the largest Italian collecting society representing actors. “We have long tried to reach an agreement with Artisti 7607 and provided them with all information required by law, as recognised by AGCOM in their decision last year,” the streaming giant added.
“Artisti 7607 have repeatedly refused our payment offer and, while we remain hopeful that they will accept it, we now await the court’s decision,” Netflix went on to point out.
“The very [streaming] platforms that process and exploit data refuse – due to their excessive economic and contractual power – to provide us with data required by law and consequently do not pay artists their fees,” Germano said in a statement released by Artisti 7607 on Tuesday.
Another popular Italian film and TV actor, Neri Marcorè, pointed out that Artisti 7607 are taking legal action against the U.S. streaming giant for the same reasons that prompted the recent actors’ and writers’ strikes in Hollywood. “We all demand transparency of data on the exploitation of audiovisual works and adequacy of compensation,” he said.
The Artisti 7607 statement also noted that the European Union’s Copyright Directive, approved in 2019, “has made it clear that artists’ remuneration must be ‘adequate and proportionate’ to revenues.” But according to local experts, the thorny issue is more complex and clearly remains unresolved in Italy, making this case a potential local landmark.
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