PEPPOL-EN16931-R010 — Missing Buyer electronic address

What it means

The Buyer electronic address (EndpointID) must be provided — required on the Peppol network. This address tells the Peppol network where to deliver the document — without it the invoice can't be sent over Peppol, even if everything else is correct.

Whose data this usually is

This field holds the buyer's (your customer's) data, not your own — so if you're the one issuing the invoice, you often won't know the exact value off the top of your head. It's the buyer's Peppol participant identifier, which is usually already saved in your accounting software's customer record if that customer has ever been registered as a Peppol recipient. If the customer isn't on the Peppol network, the invoice can't be sent over Peppol at all — only through other channels (PDF, email).

How to fix it

Check that the buyer's Party section has an EndpointID element with a schemeID attribute from the official Peppol EAS list (https://docs.peppol.eu/edelivery/codelists/) and a correct value (usually a registration or VAT number). The specific scheme depends on the country and identifier type — the accounting software or Peppol service provider usually knows the exact value. If the invoice isn't sent over Peppol but just validated for EN 16931 compliance, this field is still required because the profile is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.

What happens if you leave it blank

Without this field, the Peppol access point rejects the invoice before it ever reaches the buyer — the sender sees the error at send time, rather than the buyer later noticing a missing invoice.

Example

Wrong: the buyer section has no EndpointID element. Correct: <cbc:EndpointID schemeID="...">...</cbc:EndpointID> with a scheme and value from the Peppol EAS list.