Google Cloud resolves outage that crashed Revolut, Lloyds, HSBC and Spotify across Europe
Cloud vendor says services are returning to normal. Outage saw customers stranded at supermarkets and petrol stations, while criminal court hearings were cancelled.
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- A Google Cloud outage in London disrupted Revolut and was linked to wider online service problems.
- Lloyds, HSBC, and Bank of Scotland customers also reported banking access and payment issues.
- UK Courts and NHS have also reported issues.
- Google reported errors and intermittent network failures in its London cloud region.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Live: Google Cloud outage
A major Google Cloud outage has been linked to a disruption at Revolut. Customers of Lloyds, HSBC, and Bank of Scotland have also reported problems accessing banking services and making payments.
The disruption began shortly after 7 a.m. UK time, when Google Cloud reported technical failures affecting multiple services in its London-based europe-west2 region.
Problems have also been reported at vital services outside banking, the UK Court Service and the Criminal Bar Association as well as other businesses including Rightmove, DPD, and Screwfix, although it has not been confirmed whether all the incidents are connected.
Revolut confirmed it was experiencing problems affecting multiple services and reassured customers that their money and personal information remained safe.
In a statement, the digital bank said:
“We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services. We can confirm that all our customers’ money and data are safe.”
“We’ve been working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning and apologize to anyone affected and for any inconvenience caused.”
According to the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), the outage has "hampered" barristers' efforts to clear the court backlogs.
In a post on X, the CBA wrote: 'Cloud Video Platform (CVP) is down across large parts of England and Wales since 10am.
Many of us today, both as prosecution and defence counsel, can not proceed with trials and other hearings. Our work to clear backlogs is hampered,says the Criminal Bar Association, following cloud outage
Likewise, HM Courts and Tribunals Service wrote on X:
"We're aware of an issue affecting Cloud Video Platform (CVP), used for some remote hearings."
The Sun reports multiple accounts of customers being locked out of their accounts and having their cards declined at tills.
Some users attempting to open the banking app received an error message stating “something went wrong" and instructing them to “try again later.”
More than 1,500 reports of problems were recorded on the outage monitoring website Downdetector shortly after 8 a.m., The Guardian reported.
Customers responding to Revolut’s statement on X described being stranded at supermarkets and petrol stations.
One customer said their elderly mother had been waiting at a supermarket checkout for an hour because she was unable to pay for her shopping.
“My 71-year-old mother is at the supermarket counter waiting to pay the bill for an hour already, and her Revolut card is not working. I have to leave my job to drive to the city and back around 30 kilometers, where my mother is to get cash for her so she can pay the bill and leave the store,” the customer wrote.
Another customer, identified as Brendan, who is presumable on holiday down under, said he was unable to pay for the fuel at a petrol station in Australia.
I’m at a petrol station in Australia. Can’t pay for the fuel I just put in my car, so I’m just standing in the petrol station, highly embarrassed, and can’t get home to my kids. Won’t trust Revolut again.Revolut Customer complains on X following reported outage.
Other UK banks are also experiencing problems
Other UK banks also experienced a rise in reported problems. With Downdetector recording an increase in complaints involving HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group.
Customers also reported difficulties with Bank of Scotland, which is part of the Lloyds Banking Group.
It has not been confirmed whether the problems reported at those banks were directly caused by the Google outage.
In a status update GoogleCloud said multiple services were experiencing technical problems in its London region.
“Multiple Google Cloud services are experiencing elevated errors and intermittent network failures in europe-west2 region,” the company said on its service status dashboard.
- Google Compute Engine
- Google Kubernetes Engine
- Cloud run
- Google Cloud Storage
- Google App Engine
- Cloud Filestore
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
The outage was concentrated in the europe-west2 region, which is based in London.
However, the issue with Revolut appears to have affected customers globally. In Lithuania, where Cybernews is based, our staff have not been able to use their cards.
Other European regions, including Paris and Frankfurt, were not reporting the same problems in the available status information.
Revolut has not disclosed how many customers were affected or provided a breakdown of the disruption across its European markets.
The company said it was working to resolve the problems and reiterated that customers' money and data were safe.
No confirmed restoration time was provided in the available updates.
Tuesday’s Google Cloud outage comes exactly 12 months after rival Amazon suffered a serious outage at its cloud computing arm.
