Sources, potentials and fields in Lorenz and Coulomb gauge: Cancellation of instantaneous interactions for moving point charges

► We investigate action-at-a-distance effects in electrodynamics in detail. ► We calculate the instantaneous interactions for scalar and vector potentials. ► The cancellation mechanism involves the retarded Green function. ► The mechanism is confirmed on the example of moving point charges. ► The Green function has to be treated with care for nontrivial boundary terms.