Content Delivery Network and Resolution No. 207/25/CONS: the applicability of the authorisation regime in Italy

Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are a set of geographically distributed servers, aimed at speeding up and optimising the online delivery of content to final users. These servers, also known as caches, are installed, for instance, within the networks of electronic communications operators or in Internet Exchange Points (IXP), and allow them to benefit from transmission capacity and space to replicate and archive the contents present on the original servers. In this way, the request for a particular content is fulfilled by the server closest to the user and faster than if it had to be handled by the content provider head quarter.

As highlighted in the "BEREC Report on the entry of large content and application providers into the markets for electronic communications networks and services", three main categories of CDN can be identified:

• Private CDN: the Content and Application Provider (CAP) has complete control of the servers making up the CDN network, which are used solely for the distribution of its content.
• Public CDN: network of servers managed by a specific CDN provider (different from CAP) that provides the content distribution service to several Content Providers who, unlike the previous case, do not therefore have control of the servers and do not share transmission capacity.
• “Mixed-use" CDN: the CAP uses its own distribution infrastructure both to distribute its own contents and to provide a CDN service to third parties.

After the implementation of the 2018 European Electronic Communications Code, the provision of electronic communication services and networks is still subject in Italy to the general authorisation regime (namely, to the filing of a prior self-declaration before the Ministry of Made in Italy).

The issue of the authorisation regime applicable to CDNs was first formally approached by the Italian regulator (AgCom) in the Resolution No. 206/21/CONS with respect to CDNs used by DAZN for live streaming of soccer events.

In this decision, AgCom found that “the activity related to the provision of the distribution network (CDN) known as DAZN Edge can be attributed, for certain aspects, to the scope of application of the Code” in that “the DAZN Edge consists of video streaming servers to be installed on Italian territory directly within the network infrastructure of the operators”.

As a result of this decision, DAZN got a general authorisation for the installation and provision of a public electronic communications network and for packet-switched data transmission.

Although the purpose of this decision was to make the regulatory framework more transparent and compliant, it initially created a disparity situation in Italy, since only DAZN began operating under the general authorisation regime, while other CDN providers and CAP remained operating outside the authorisation regime.

AgCom thus saw the need to standardise the authorisation regime for all CDN providers and CAP and initiated a specific preliminary investigation procedure aimed at identifying the conditions for the applicability of the general authorisation regime for the provision, ownership, management or control of a CDN infrastructure in Italy.

The subsequent Resolution No. 207/25/CONS, issued in August 2025, thus marked a turning point in the Italian regulatory scenario of electronic communications.

Confirming what expressed in previous Resolution No. 206/21/CONS, AgCom considered that the general authorisation regime must be applied to all CDN providers and CAP that own, operate or control a CDN in the national territory, crystallising the concept that CDN must be brought under the definition of electronic communications network.

With this decision, AgCom is the first national regulator to subject a wide range of entities, such as OTTs and other companies that operate CDNs, to its regulatory regime.

Among the main consequences, in addition to the payment of administrative fees, is the subjection of these entities to AgCom's powers to resolve disputes between authorised operators.

In this way, AgCom is likely to be involved in disputes between telephone carriers and these entities, exercising a function of regulation by litigation.

For more information, please contact Federico Marini Balestra, Jacopo Orsi and Bianca Maria Gorlero.