Our latest benchmark shows whether, in selected European countries, the law or the national regulator imposes an obligation on fixed and/or mobile operators to compensate their customers when their voice or data networks fail.

In 11 of the 13 European countries studied, consumers have a legal right to compensation in the event of service failures. No such obligation exists in Ireland and Slovakia, but operators in both countries must provide information on any compensation that may apply if the contracted service quality levels are not met.

Most countries set minimum and/or maximum compensations per customer, depending on the type of service and subscription, as well as the duration of the outage.

Outages caused by force majeure are generally not eligible for compensation. However, the current EU regulatory framework requires member states to take all necessary measures to ensure the fullest possible availability of voice and internet services provided over public electronic communications networks, in the event of catastrophic network breakdown or in cases of force majeure (article 108 of the European Electronic Communications Code).

Scope
Region: Europe
Countries covered: 13 (Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, UK)
Policy area: Consumer protection, contract regulation, quality of service
Last updated: January 2026

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