PEPPOL-EN16931-R010: Buyer electronic address (BT-49) is missing

StandardPeppol BIS Billing 3.0 (OpenPeppol)SeverityError: the invoice is rejectedSyntaxUBL, CIIApplies toInvoices and credit notes sent over the Peppol network (UBL) and, because XRechnung embeds the Peppol rule set, every XRechnung as well.

Official rule text

[PEPPOL-EN16931-R010] Buyer electronic address MUST be provided

Why this error occurs

In the Peppol network the buyer's electronic address is the participant identifier the invoice is delivered to, so BIS Billing makes it mandatory. The rule checks cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cbc:EndpointID (UBL) or ram:BuyerTradeParty/ram:URIUniversalCommunication/ram:URIID (CII). It is missing when the customer master data holds only postal and e-mail details, or when the exporter writes the Peppol ID into cac:PartyIdentification instead.

How to fix it

In UBL add cbc:EndpointID as the first child of cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party with a schemeID from the EAS code list, e.g. 0088 (GLN), 0192 (Norwegian org. no.), 0208 (Belgian enterprise no.), 9930 (German VAT ID), 0204 (Leitweg-ID). In CII add ram:URIUniversalCommunication/ram:URIID with schemeID under ram:BuyerTradeParty. The value must be the buyer's registered Peppol participant identifier, not a plain e-mail address unless scheme EM is agreed.

Example (valid)

<cac:AccountingCustomerParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cbc:EndpointID schemeID="0088">4012345000009</cbc:EndpointID>
    ...
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingCustomerParty>

What the validator checks

Checked element (context):

UBL

cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party

Test (XPath):

cbc:EndpointID

CII

ram:BuyerTradeParty

Test (XPath):

ram:URIUniversalCommunication/ram:URIID

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Related rules

PEPPOL-EN16931-R001 Business process identifier (BT-23) is missing
PEPPOL-EN16931-R002 No more than one note is allowed on document level, unless both the buyer and seller…
PEPPOL-EN16931-R003 Neither buyer reference nor purchase order reference given
PEPPOL-EN16931-R004 Specification identifier is not the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 identifier
PEPPOL-EN16931-R005 VAT accounting currency equals the invoice currency
PEPPOL-EN16931-R006 Only one invoiced object is allowed on document level
PEPPOL-EN16931-R007 Business process identifier has the wrong format
PEPPOL-EN16931-R008 Document contains empty elements

Frequently asked questions

What does PEPPOL-EN16931-R010 mean?

PEPPOL-EN16931-R010 is a peppol bis billing 3.0 rule: Buyer electronic address MUST be provided

Will my invoice be rejected because of PEPPOL-EN16931-R010?

Yes. PEPPOL-EN16931-R010 is flagged "fatal"; validators (KoSIT, Peppol access points, the German ZRE/OZG-RE portals) reject the invoice until it is fixed.

Which formats does PEPPOL-EN16931-R010 apply to?

Invoices and credit notes sent over the Peppol network (UBL) and, because XRechnung embeds the Peppol rule set, every XRechnung as well. Syntax: UBL and CII.

Source: Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.20 (November 2025). Catalogue generated from the official schematron on 2026-10-14.