The report is compiled based on input from key industry players. This includes submissions from copyright industry groups that frequently highlight piracy challenges that in their view act as barriers to trade.
In previous years, for example, the MPA and others have called for more site-blocking efforts to counter the piracy threat. Interestingly, however, other American companies now inform the USTR that foreign site-blocking measures are becoming a significant trade barrier.
Cloudflare Sees Piracy Blockades as Trade Barriers
To share its concerns, Cloudflare decided to participate in the annual trade barriers consultation for the first time this year. The company describes itself as a “leading connectivity cloud company” running one of the world’s largest networks, providing security, performance, and reliability services.
According to Cloudflare, several foreign countries disproportionately impact U.S. technology providers, with many concerns relating to site-blocking measures that aim to deter online piracy.
Spain
Cloudflare writes that Spanish courts allow rightsholders to request “overbroad court orders” that authorize IP address blocking. Since a single IP address can serve thousands of domains, disrupting pirates often means that many legitimate sites and services are blocked too, causing widespread collateral damage.
“This practice results in the widespread and repeated disruption of tens of thousands of unrelated, legitimate websites, as well as the disruption of digital services, with no judicial opportunity for remedy,” Cloudflare writes.
“These actions, designed to protect a narrow set of commercial interests, have caused significant collateral harm to businesses and users who are not the intended targets, without recourse or the possibility for affected parties to challenge the underlying order.”
The Spanish Government is aware of the problems, which Cloudflare says are at odds with international standards, but has chosen not to intervene in the issue. Therefore, it continues to present a significant trade barrier.
Italy
Cloudflare reports similar concerns in Italy, where the “Piracy Shield” site-blocking law has a direct effect on American companies. This blocking regulation requires network providers, including CDNs, to comply with blocking notices within 30 minutes.
“The failure to include adequate safeguards against collateral damage has led to the inappropriate blocking of shared services of large cloud providers, which are disproportionately American businesses,” Cloudflare notes.
“For instance, the blocking of a Cloudflare IP address resulted in tens of thousands of non-targeted websites being blocked in February 2024. Furthermore, the blocking of the domain “drive.usercontent.google.com” in October denied Italian users access to Google Drive for over 12 hours.”
Efforts to expand Piracy Shield to public DNS resolvers and VPN services only make the problem worse, Cloudflare says, noting that some U.S. companies have already decided to leave the European country.
Automated piracy blocks are not the only reported trade barrier in Italy. Cloudflare also notes that the country allows rightsholders to “abuse” the courts to disrupt U.S. businesses by granting ex parte blocking orders without giving the companies a chance to oppose them.
“This coercive, penalty-based approach to removal of content, without adequate judicial review or due process protections, is a significant barrier to doing business in Italy,” Cloudflare writes.
France
In France, Cloudflare highlights Article L.333-10 of the Sports Code as a key problem. This has resulted in several pirate site blocking orders that go beyond regular Internet providers, requiring DNS resolvers and VPN services to take action as well.
Cloudflare notes that some services lack the technical capabilities to implement these orders and as a result, several U.S. companies have already left the country.
Recently, France passed a new anti-piracy bill that opens the door to automated IP-address blocking, similar to Italy’s Piracy Shield. This is a major concern for Cloudflare, which fears that this will only lead to more collateral damage.
“It increases the risk of overblocking legitimate content or mistakenly targeting websites that operate lawfully, potentially disrupting cross-border digital services,” Cloudflare writes.
South Korea
South Korea has also created trade barriers due to its site-blocking measures, Cloudflare reports. A revision to the Network Act in 2023 now requires “CDNs to restrict access to illegal content”.
As a result, Cloudflare and other American companies are required to maintain detailed and regularly updated blocklists.
“The South Korea Communication Commission (KCC) sends U.S. CDN providers a ‘block list’ of over 1.5 million URLs (with 30,000 new additions monthly),” Cloudflare writes, noting that this places an “unprecedented compliance burden” on companies.
Conflicting Demands at the U.S. Trade Office
Cloudflare urges the USTR to take these concerns into account for its upcoming National Trade Estimate Report. Ideally, it wants these trade barriers to be dismantled.
These calls run counter to requests from rightsholders, who urge the USTR to ensure that more foreign countries implement blocking measures. With potential site-blocking legislation being considered in U.S. Congress, that may impact local lobbying efforts as well.
If and how the USTR will address these concerns will become clearer early next year, when the 2026 National Trade Estimate Report is expected to be published.
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A copy of Cloudflare’s submission for the USTR’s 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers is available here (pdf)