That's what happens when government is regulated but companies aren't. The kind of process you describe is totally illegal and unheard of in the EU. In France

That's what happens when government is regulated but companies aren't. The kind of process you describe is totally illegal and unheard of in the EU. In France banks also take utilities bills as proof of residence (but they also ask for id or passport to check your identity). ID cards do have an address as well as passports and driving licences, but even the government doesn't accept them as proof of residence because they're often out of date. In my case they all have different addresses and none of them has my current address. My Belgian ID though has to be reissued every time I move to a different municipality. Oh and regarding DMV having addresses yes, but (in France) they are indexed by a DMV-specific key that cannot easily be matched to another database, say social security or taxes (which also independently have addresses on most citizens). Driving license number, fiscal number, SSN, cannot legally be used anywhere else than with their respective services. There is of course the names that can be used, but no system is perfect I guess. Anyway these are just implementation details, but my point is that the EU has many different administrative systems and in at least some of them, utilities are the only legal proof of residence.