Yes—but who imposes the restriction matters. EU open-internet rules generally require internet providers to treat traffic equally, while allowing certain necessary and limited exceptions. A website or streaming service can separately restrict access by location or block VPN endpoints. A 2026 Court of Justice of the European Union ruling also confirms that VPN circumvention does not automatically make a copyright geo-block ineffective. None of this means that every VPN restriction is lawful—or that using a VPN is generally illegal.
Who is restricting the VPN?
Start by identifying what is actually blocked. An internet service provider (ISP) controls your connection to the internet; a website or app controls access to its own service. A public authority may also impose a legal requirement. These are different situations, governed by different considerations.
| Who acts | What may be restricted | Key question |
|---|---|---|
| Internet provider | VPN tunnel traffic, a VPN destination or related traffic | Does the measure comply with EU open-internet rules, or fit a permitted exception? |
| Website or online service | Access from a location, or connections from VPN IP addresses | Is this a service-access or territorial restriction, and what legal or service basis applies? |
| Public authority | Access or traffic subject to a legal order or obligation | What law or order applies, and what is its scope? |
The restriction’s scope and duration also matter: a specific, necessary, time-limited measure is different from a broad, persistent restriction. The EU-wide framework does not resolve every fact pattern, and national details may differ.
Can an internet provider block a VPN?
Article 3(3) of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 requires internet access providers to treat traffic equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, irrespective of its sender or receiver, content, application, service or terminal equipment. That is the starting point for assessing an ISP’s treatment of VPN traffic. Read Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120.
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The rule is not absolute. Providers may use reasonable traffic management when it is transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate; is based on objectively different technical requirements rather than commercial considerations; and lasts no longer than necessary. Measures beyond reasonable traffic management are permitted only as long as necessary for specified purposes, including complying with EU or EU-compliant national law, preserving network integrity and security, or preventing impending congestion and mitigating exceptional or temporary congestion. The European Commission summarizes these open-internet principles as protecting end users’ access to and distribution of lawful content and services of their choice, subject to limited exceptions. See the Commission’s overview of open-internet rules.
So the fact that an ISP blocks or limits VPN traffic does not, by itself, settle whether the measure is lawful. The relevant questions include what is blocked, the provider’s stated legal or technical basis, whether the measure is necessary and proportionate, and how long it remains in place. The EU-wide rules do not establish that every VPN-specific measure is lawful or unlawful regardless of circumstances.
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Can a website or streaming service block VPNs?
Yes. A website or streaming service is not your internet access provider. It may apply location controls or detect and refuse connections from some VPN endpoints. That is a service-access restriction, not automatically an ISP’s breach of the open-internet rules.
The Geo-blocking Regulation (EU) 2018/302 addresses specified unjustified discrimination in the internal market based on customers’ nationality, residence or establishment. It does not require every online service to offer all content in every location. Territorial copyright licensing and other applicable legal constraints can limit where content is made available. See the European Commission’s geo-blocking policy page.
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What the 2026 CJEU ruling says about VPN circumvention
In Case C-788/24, the Court of Justice of the European Union considered a website publishing a work free of charge when the work was in the public domain in some Member States but still protected by copyright in another. The Court held that the online publication was not a communication to the public in the Member State where the work remained protected if the site used effective, state-of-the-art geo-blocking—even though users there could circumvent the restriction with a VPN or similar service. Read the judgment in Case C-788/24.
In paragraph 51, the Court said: “While it is true that geo-blocking measures, including state-of-the-art measures, can, like any technological measure, be circumvented, particularly through the use of a VPN or similar service, the possibility of such circumvention cannot, in itself and in all circumstances, be a decisive factor in finding those measures to be inadequate and, therefore, ineffective.”
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The Court also held that if geo-blocking is ineffective and the publication therefore constitutes a communication to the public, that communication is attributable to the publisher, not merely to the VPN provider that enabled circumvention. The decision concerns this defined copyright and territorial-publication scenario. It does not establish that every VPN user or act of circumvention is unlawful, or that every service must block VPNs.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is it legal to use a VPN to access geo-blocked content?
The EU-wide rules described here do not support a blanket answer that every such use is either lawful or unlawful. The CJEU ruling addresses the effectiveness of a publisher’s geo-blocking in a specific copyright situation; it is not a general ruling on every person’s VPN use. Whether a particular use raises legal issues depends on the content, territory and applicable rules. A service may also deny access under its own controls, independently of what the ISP does.
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How to assess a VPN restriction
- Identify the actor. Determine whether the block comes from your ISP, a public authority, or the website or app you are trying to reach.
- Identify what fails. Work out whether VPN traffic itself is blocked, a particular destination or VPN endpoint is inaccessible, or the service refuses access to content.
- Check the stated basis. It may involve traffic management, a legal obligation, network integrity, a service policy or territorial copyright. Do not assume that one category’s rules answer another’s question.
- Consider scope and duration. For an ISP measure, necessity, proportionality and whether it lasts only as long as necessary are relevant under the open-internet framework. For service restrictions, consider the service-access and territorial context.
- Keep the jurisdiction in view. The sources here describe the EU-wide framework; they do not establish current VPN-specific statutes, enforcement practices or remedies for every Member State.
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