If the addressee does not live at the address used for service and has no ongoing contact with it, service at that address will be merely fictitious, regardless of whether it is an officially registered address. Some national laws (notably in the Czech Republic) permit such ‘fictitious service’ at the outset, whereas most EU Member States require a genuine attempt to ascertain the individual’s actual place of residence first. The European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union have articulated broadly comparable standards. EU Regulation 2020/1784 nevertheless raises practical difficulties. It encourages cross-border address searches, yet relies primarily on official registers. This is approach works where the information collected from these registers corresponds to the actual residence of the addressee. However, if this is not the case, service at the registered address would be merely fictitious. This is only in accordance with the requirements of a fair trial only where all reasonable attempts to determine the addressee’s actual address have been exhausted.

Key words: right to be heard, principle of proportionality, fictitious service, registered address, unknown address.