PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) is an international network for exchanging business documents — invoices, orders, despatch advices — between companies and governments across different countries and software systems.
The design is called the 4-corner model: sender → sender's access point → receiver's access point → receiver. Neither party needs a direct connection to the other; both connect to a certified access point, and the network handles routing. Each participant is identified by a PEPPOL ID registered in the SMP directory.
PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 is the standard invoicing profile — dominant in Nordic countries and increasingly required in Switzerland for public procurement.
Key facts
- Governed by OpenPEPPOL AISBL (Belgium)
- Document format: UBL 2.1 or UN/CEFACT CII
- Profile for invoicing: PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 (EN 16931 compliant)
- Switzerland joined OpenPEPPOL as an authority member