[hnarn]

This isn't "Europe", it's Germany. Germany is still well known for using fax for government and corporate communication, and there was heavy criticism for how the Covid pandemic was initially handled because faxing records was so common which meant they could not be easily digitized, collected and searched.

In Sweden, sending a fax or physical letter to a government instance or private companies rather than an e-mail is more or less unheard of, unless they for some reason need a physical paper with your signature on it (I've heard this happen with customs, for example), but in almost all areas of society this has now also been replaced with Bank-ID, which is digital.[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BankID

[revax]

You have to call or send a letter to cancel your subscription of the French newspaper LeMonde.

It's not just Germany.

[_Wintermute]

I had this same issue with a number of French companies. Couldn't figure out why they weren't cancelling my contract despite repeated letters until someone told me you have to send the letter with proof of receipt otherwise they just ignore it.

[nivenkos]

Yeah, I live in Sweden now too.

I think Sweden is the exception here really though (and the other Scandinavian countries, and possibly the UK).

[hnarn]

To me, that’s enough exceptions to not generalize about “Europe”.