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
For more information and access to the benchmark, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to our European Consumer Protection (in Telecoms) service.
more news
17 August 26
Most countries in the Americas region tax over-the-top services
This Cullen International benchmark shows for each surveyed country whether OTT video and music service providers are subject to any regulation and/or taxation; or if there are national plans to adopt applicable regulations or taxes.
13 August 26
Countries in the Americas generally do not require licensing for social media platforms
Cullen International's benchmark shows what regulatory regimes, if any, apply to social media networks in each of the surveyed countries. It includes general rules, as well as what forms of content are restricted or forbidden on social media platforms, and any applicable safe harbours.
07 August 26
Global trends in data centres and cloud service providers
An updated Global Trends benchmark analyses policies and regulations of relevance for data centre and cloud service providers (CSPs) across 14 jurisdictions. It found there are different approaches worldwide on aspects such as licensing, ownership restrictions, cloud-related competition policies, cybersecurity and use of subsidies in the cloud sector.