The sheet to print
Streaming abroad: the one-page file
Seven reflexes, in the order of the stay, from the black screen to the trip home. Each carries the text it stands on.
File EU 2017/1128
This page is made to be printed: when printing, the whole screen around it disappears.
Law as verified onJuly 29, 2026
- 01
Travel with your subscription, that is what it is for
On a temporary stay in the Union, your paid service works in the same manner as at home: same content, same devices, same users, same functionalities. A “not available in your region” screen gets disputed, screenshot attached.
Article 3(1) · Regulation (EU) 2017/1128, Article 3 (Obligation to enable cross-border portability), paragraph 1 · eur-lex.europa.eu - 02
Refuse any paid travel option
No additional charge may be imposed for access and use during a temporary stay. The “your catalogue everywhere in Europe” surcharge sells what your subscription already contains.
Article 3(2) · Regulation (EU) 2017/1128, Article 3(2): no additional charges · eur-lex.europa.eu - 03
Answer the licensing argument with Article 4
Your use during a temporary stay is deemed to occur solely in your Member State of residence. The provider's national licence therefore covers your travel screen: the territorial argument falls.
Article 4 · Regulation (EU) 2017/1128, Article 4 (Localisation of the provision of, access to and use of online content services) · eur-lex.europa.eu - 04
Provide only two documents, but provide them
The residence check is capped at two means from the written list, and those means must be reasonable, proportionate and effective. Conversely, paragraph 3 of the same Article entitles the provider not to open portability if you provide no information at all: the right lives between the two refusals.
Article 5(1) · Regulation (EU) 2017/1128, Article 5 (Verification of the Member State of residence), paragraph 1 · eur-lex.europa.eu - 05
Ignore the day quotas in the terms and conditions
Clauses that prohibit portability or limit it to a specific time period are unenforceable, the Regulation's own word. No number of days exists in the text: what matters is a temporary presence and a residence that stays home.
Article 7(1) · Regulation (EU) 2017/1128, Article 7 (Contractual provisions), paragraph 1 · eur-lex.europa.eu - 06
Tell throttled quality apart from a slow connection
Deliberately reducing quality while you travel is forbidden; actual quality also depends on your network on the spot. Before complaining, test on another connection: the right grievance is the throttling, not the hotel Wi-Fi.
Section “Access to the same content wherever you are” · Accessing online content abroad: content quality · europa.eu - 07
Check the free services' regime before leaving
For free services, portability is optional: it depends on the provider's choice. Check their policy before departure, and keep your legal complaints for your paid subscriptions, where the right is whole.
Section “Accessing free online content abroad” · Accessing online content abroad: free services, an optional regime · europa.eu
General information on the European baseline, not legal advice on your case. Independent educational site, unconnected to the institutions of the European Union. The redress links in this file point only to official bodies.
Sources checked on July 29, 2026. · https://depleindroit.odersa.org/en/fiches/le-streaming-en-vacances · Content licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What the law owes you
Every right with its amount or its deadline, the extract of the official text it rests on, and its address.
Your paid subscription, in the same manner as at home
Temporarily present in another Member State, you access your paid online content service and use it in the same manner as in your Member State of residence: same content, same range and number of devices, same number of users, same functionalities.
The official text · Article 3(1)
Official Journal of the European Union · EUR-Lex · https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02017R1128-20170630“1. The provider of an online content service provided against payment of money shall enable a subscriber who is temporarily present in a Member State to access and use the online content service in the same manner as in the Member State of residence, including by providing access to the same content, on the same range and number of devices, for the same number of users and with the same range of functionalities.”
No additional charge for travelling
The provider shall not impose any additional charges for access to and use of the service during a temporary stay. Any paid “travel option” grafted onto a paid subscription contradicts that paragraph.
The official text · Article 3(2)
Official Journal of the European Union · EUR-Lex · https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02017R1128-20170630“2. The provider shall not impose any additional charges on the subscriber for the access to and the use of the online content service pursuant to paragraph 1.”
Your use is deemed to take place at home
The provision of the service, its access and its use during a temporary stay are deemed to occur solely in your Member State of residence. That is the legal fiction that neutralises the territorial licences argument.
The official text · Article 4
Official Journal of the European Union · EUR-Lex · https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02017R1128-20170630“The provision of an online content service under this Regulation to a subscriber who is temporarily present in a Member State, as well as the access to and the use of that service by the subscriber, shall be deemed to occur solely in the subscriber's Member State of residence.”
A quality that may not be deliberately throttled
The provider shall take no action to reduce the quality of delivery during a temporary stay. What can change is your local connection, never a setting on their side.
The official text · Article 3(3)
Official Journal of the European Union · EUR-Lex · https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02017R1128-20170630“The provider shall not take any action to reduce the quality of delivery of the online content service when providing the online content service in accordance with paragraph 1.”
A residence check capped at two means
Verification of the Member State of residence uses not more than two means, picked from the Regulation's written list, and those means must be reasonable, proportionate and effective. Refusing all information has a price of its own: with verification impossible, portability is no longer owed.
The official text · Article 5(1)
Official Journal of the European Union · EUR-Lex · https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02017R1128-20170630“At the conclusion and upon the renewal of a contract for the provision of an online content service provided against payment of money, the provider shall verify the Member State of residence of the subscriber by using not more than two of the following means of verification and shall ensure that the means used are reasonable, proportionate and effective:”
Contrary clauses are unenforceable, day quotas included
All contractual provisions contrary to the Regulation are unenforceable, including between providers and rights holders, and notably those which prohibit portability or limit it to a specific time period. The Regulation itself sets no number of days.
The official text · Article 7(1)
Official Journal of the European Union · EUR-Lex · https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02017R1128-20170630“Any contractual provisions, including those between providers of online content services and holders of copyright or related rights or those holding any other rights in the content of online content services, as well as those between such providers and their subscribers, which are contrary to this Regulation, including those which prohibit cross-border portability of online content services or limit such portability to a specific time period, shall be unenforceable.”
This site is educational and independent: it is not an official site of the European Union, and this verdict is not legal advice on your case. The wordings quoted are copied from the official text or the official page, whose link appears under each right.
File EU 2017/1128
The items in this file
Every item has its own page. The situation is played here; what you keep, what you send and what you re-read live next door.