E-invoicing mandates · country index
E-invoicing mandates, and how much of each one is real
Three national obligations are live, and no two of them work the same way. Each page below states what the law requires, links the official government source behind every date, and then does the thing a legal summary cannot: shows how many companies in that country are actually reachable on Peppol today.
Countries
Where each mandate stands
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Belgium 2,193,839 Peppol IDs
Structured B2B e-invoicing is mandatory between Belgian VAT-registered businesses, with Peppol BIS over the Peppol network as the default channel written into the rule. No phase-in by size, and the general tolerance period has ended.
Also in Nederlands · français
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France 5,825,792 Peppol IDs
Every business liable for French VAT must be able to receive e-invoices through an accredited platform; large companies and mid-caps must already issue them, and everyone else follows on 1 September 2027. France mandates the platform model, not Peppol.
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Germany 13,333 Peppol IDs
Receiving an E-Rechnung has been compulsory for every domestic business since January 2025. Issuing follows on 1 January 2027 above €800,000 prior-year turnover and 1 January 2028 for the rest. German law prescribes EN 16931 formats and no transmission channel, so Peppol is permitted rather than required.
Page is in German
Counts from GET /v1/stats/participants, index updated 20 Sept 2026, 19:38 UTC. They count participant identifiers, not organisations — one company can hold several.
The dates above are summaries. Each country page states the rule in full and links the official government source behind every date — the Belgian Official Gazette and FPS Finance, the DGFiP and impots.gouv.fr, the BMF and the German VAT Act. All three were re-read on 12 September 2026.
The distinction that matters
A format mandate is not a network mandate
Every one of these laws requires a structured invoice, so a PDF by email stops being enough. Only one of them also requires a network. Belgium names the Peppol network in its Royal Decree; France requires an accredited platform and leaves Peppol optional between platforms; Germany names no channel at all. Conflating the three is how a supplier ends up buying the wrong thing, and it is why each page here answers "where does Peppol fit" separately from "what does the law say".
PeppolStatus measures the Peppol network. These pages summarise published law to explain what we measure; they are monitoring and market data, not legal or compliance advice.
Next steps
Whichever country you are in
- Find a providerEvery access point and SMP operator, ranked by the participants they really serve, with measured uptime.
- Check a companyLook up any Peppol ID and see whether it is reachable, through whom, and since when.
- Check your softwareWhich access point each accounting and invoicing product actually runs on.
FAQ
Mandates: common questions
Which countries have mandatory B2B e-invoicing today?
Of the three largest Peppol markets in Western Europe, all three now have a live obligation, and no two work the same way. Belgium has required structured B2B e-invoicing since 1 January 2026 and names Peppol as the default channel. France has required every VAT-liable business to be able to receive since 1 September 2026, routed through an accredited platform rather than a named network. Germany has required every domestic business to be able to receive since 1 January 2025, with the duty to issue phased over 2027 and 2028. We cover these three because they are where the mandate questions and the Peppol traffic actually are.
Does an e-invoicing mandate always mean Peppol?
No, and assuming it does is the most common mistake in e-invoicing advice. Belgium wrote the Peppol network into its Royal Decree, so there Peppol is effectively the floor. France prescribes formats and an accredited-platform model, and treats Peppol as one optional interoperability route between platforms. Germany prescribes EN 16931 formats and no transmission channel at all, which makes Peppol permitted but never required. Each country page says which of the three applies.
What can PeppolStatus tell me that a law firm's summary cannot?
Whether the mandate is actually happening on the network. We scan the Peppol SML and every SMP we can resolve, every day, and publish the per-country participant counts and their movement. That turns a legal deadline into a measurable state: Belgium's identifier count reflects a same-day mandate with a named channel, Germany's reflects a mandate that routes around Peppol entirely. The legal text is the authority on what you must do; our numbers are evidence about what the market did.
Is this page legal advice?
No. PeppolStatus measures the Peppol network. These pages summarise published law in order to explain what we measure, each with visible links to the official government source behind every date. They are monitoring and market data, not legal or compliance advice — check your own position against those sources or with your adviser.