Why can't I buy US ETFs like VOO as a European — and what do I buy instead?

📍 A note for our readers: This article is about a situation specific to investors in the EU/EEA (and, since Brexit, the UK). If you live in the US, none of this applies — you can just buy VOO. If you're a European retail investor, read on.

You've done your reading — maybe on American YouTube channels or on Reddit — and everyone says the same thing: just buy the Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO) or VTI, done. You go to your broker, enter the order, and it gets rejected. The ticker vanishes from search, or the confirmation is blocked.

This isn't your broker's fault, and it isn't a glitch. It's an EU rule. This article explains, in plain language, why you can't buy these funds — and what you, as a European investor, buy instead.

Why doesn't it work?

The reason is called PRIIPs — an EU regulation in force since 2018. It requires that any investment product sold to retail investors in the EU must provide a short information sheet, the Key Information Document (KID), covering risk, costs, and scenarios in a standardised format.

US ETFs like VOO, VTI, or QQQ simply don't provide this document. It's a European-only document, and US providers have no reason to create it — their market is the US. Without a KID, European brokers are legally not allowed to sell these funds to retail clients. That's why every broker in the EU blocks the same funds — Trade Republic, Scalable, Interactive Brokers, DEGIRO. It's not the platform.

Worth clarifying: this is not a UCITS rule. UCITS is, in fact, the solution — more on that in a moment. The block comes from PRIIPs.

The honest framing: your choice isn't "VOO vs CSPX"

Many people think they have to choose between the American VOO and a European equivalent. That's not the case. As an EU retail investor, you can't buy VOO at all. So your real choice isn't "VOO or the European version" — it's "the European version or nothing."

This is where UCITS comes in: it's the European fund standard that provides the KID and meets all EU rules. A UCITS ETF isn't just an "alternative" to a US ETF — it's the only legal way to invest broadly in an index through your normal broker. (What UCITS means exactly, we explain in a separate article.)

What do I buy instead?

The good news: for almost every well-known US ETF, there's a UCITS ETF tracking the same index — often from the same provider. A few examples of what these counterparts look like (these are not recommendations, just orientation):

• S&P 500 (instead of VOO / SPY): e.g. iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS (CSPX) or Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS (VUSA). Same index, similar cost (~0.07%).
• Nasdaq-100 (instead of QQQ): e.g. Invesco EQQQ Nasdaq-100 UCITS (EQQQ) — from the same provider as QQQ, in fact.
• Global (instead of VT): e.g. Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS (VWCE) or iShares Core MSCI World UCITS (IWDA).

You just enter the UCITS ticker at your broker instead of the US one, and the order goes through.

One honest exception: the popular VTI (which tracks the entire US market, around 3,700 stocks) has no exact 1:1 UCITS equivalent. The closest approximation is usually an S&P 500 ETF — i.e. the 500 largest companies rather than the whole market. In practice the difference is small, but it's worth knowing that not every US ETF has a perfect counterpart.

Any catch?

To be fair: the European UCITS wrapper is often marginally more expensive than the US original (costs for the KID, custody, EU regulation). US ETFs are sometimes a touch cheaper due to their scale and structure. But that's irrelevant as long as you can't buy the US ETF anyway. The UCITS ETF isn't "the better deal" — it's the available one, and for long-term wealth building that's perfectly sufficient.

There's also a tax angle around the fund domicile (why almost all UCITS ETFs are based in Ireland) — we'll cover that in a separate article.

In short

You can't buy VOO and friends because US ETFs don't provide the EU's mandatory document (the KID) — a PRIIPs rule, not your broker's fault. The solution is the matching UCITS ETF on the same index, and one exists for almost every well-known US fund. If you're unsure which allocation even fits you, you can find out with our free questionnaire — no sign-up, no ads.

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This article is general information, not investment advice. The funds mentioned are illustrative examples, not recommendations.