Cross-border portability of online content services from 1 January 2021
This page tells you what you’ll need to do from 1 January 2021. It’ll be updated if anything changes.
For current information, read: Cross-border portability of online content services
You can also read about the transition period.
The EU Portability Regulation allows consumers across the European Economic Area (EEA) to access their online content services (for example, video-on-demand streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime) as if they are at home when they travel within the EEA.
This means that an online service provider must provide customers the same content as in their home state when they are temporarily present in another state. The regulation applies only to travel between EEA member states.
Cross-border portability from 1 January 2021
The EU Portability Regulation will cease to apply to UK-EEA travel from 1 January 2021. In the UK, the regulation will be revoked.
Online content service providers will not be required under the regulation to provide content ordinarily available in the UK to a UK customer who is temporarily present in any other EEA Member State.
This will not prevent service providers offering cross-border portability to their customers on a voluntary basis, but to do so they will need the permission of the owners of the content they provide.
Changes for UK customers of online content services
UK customers visiting the EEA and EEA customers visiting the UK may see restrictions to the content available to them from 1 January 2021.
This will depend on the terms of their services and the licences in place between service providers and right holders.