German companies are registered under their GEBA
German companies are now also registered under their German Electronic Business Address (GEBA, scheme 0246), the address the German identifier guideline recommends senders look a business up under. They keep sending from their VAT number.
The German identifier guideline (KoSIT, Germany Identifier Guideline v1.3) recommends that senders look a private German business up under its German Electronic Business Address (GEBA, scheme 0246). The value of a GEBA is the business identification number (W-IdNr), which is the same as the business's VAT number. Until now, German companies were registered only under their VAT number with scheme 9930. A sender whose software looked them up under 0246 did not find them.
What changed
- Registered under both schemes: A new German company with a VAT number gets two identifiers:
9930:DE123456788and0246:DE123456788. Both are registered on Peppol when the company is registered as a recipient, and moving a company to Germany adds both. - Existing German companies: Existing German companies get the GEBA added as well, including companies that already have a GEBA with a distinctive feature or sub-address. Their own GEBAs stay as they are.
- Sending is unchanged: A German company keeps sending from
9930:and its VAT number. The GEBA only adds an address it can receive on. - Never a reason to be refused: When another provider already publishes the company's GEBA, the company is registered without it. Look the GEBA up with the verify recipient endpoint to find that provider, and move it over with a migration key.
- Adding it yourself: Adding the plain GEBA with the create company identifier endpoint returns the identifier the company already has instead of an error. GEBAs with a distinctive feature or sub-address, such as
0246:DE123456788-00001, are still added that way.
What you need to do
Nothing. If you list a German company's identifiers, expect a 0246 identifier next to the 9930 one. To send to a German business under its GEBA, use 0246: followed by its VAT number as the recipient. The German getting started guides have the details.