In this article, the preliminary ruling in Alassini is analysed in the context of how the content and enforcement of new consumer citizenship rights are evolving in liberalised network sectors of the EU. The article examines the use made of the general principles of EU law and fundamental rights to test the compatibility of an Italian law making pre-trial mediation mandatory in telecoms disputes involving the universal service obligations (USOs) established in EU law. It sheds further light on the EU principles of effective judicial protection and national procedural autonomy. The impact of the judgment is then discussed, first, in the light of English legislative and judicial approaches to ADR and, second, in the context of the legal enforcement of USOs in the EU