PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement Online) is a set ofspecifications for establishing and also the primary implementation of afederatedelectronic procurement system for use across differentjurisdictions.[1] Through Peppol, participant organisations can deliver procurement documents to each other includingelectronic invoices inmachine readable formats, avoiding thelabour ofdata entry.
OpenPeppol, anon-profit international association registered in Belgium, is the governing body of the primary implementation and developer of specifications.[2] The primary implementation of Peppol as at 16 March 2025 had 1,426,623 participant organisations from 98 countries registered to receive procurement documents.[3]
No other implementations of Peppol are known to be in use by businesses or government bodies around the world. Whilst it would be possible for an alternative Peppol implementation to be created with alternative governance arrangements, Peppol specifications would need to be adjusted to remove dependencies on the OpenPeppol association in aspects including mandatory use of OpenPeppolpublic key certificates.[4]
In an implementation of Peppol, a single central database known as a Service Metadata Locator (SML) lists participants with a unique identifier, the electronic procurement standards supported by each participant and reference to a separate database known as a Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) that each participant has chosen. A Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) extends the information listed on a participant to include technical information on aweb application programming interface known as an Access Point (AP) chosen by each participant to deliver procurement documents.[5]
For the primary implementation used worldwide, OpenPeppol, as the governing body, operates the Service Metadata Locator (SML). OpenPeppol only allows participants to be listed in this database if they have registered with an OpenPeppol approved Service Metadata Publisher (SMP). Approval of Service Metadata Publishers (SMPs) is delegated by OpenPeppol to one ofnumerous country-specific Peppol Authorities (PAs) and is also contingent on candidate Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) organisations being paid members of OpenPeppol. A Peppol Authority (PA) is typically an individual government body for a country and they may impose differing requirements and technical standards on Service Metadata Publishers (SMPs) prior to approval being granted.[6]
Delivery of information in an implementation of Peppol occurs directly between the chosen Access Point (AP) of a sender and receiver, as obtained via the discovery process using the Service Metadata Locator (SML) and relevant Service Metadata Publishers (SMPs).[5] A protocol namedeDelivery AS4 (based onAS4) is used to deliver procurement documents between Access Points (APs).Transport Layer Security is used and electronic documents will only be accepted by a receiving Access Point (AP) if the payload has been validated by another submitting Access Point (AP), providing a level offraud protection againstphishing and otherconfidence tricks.
For the primary implementation used worldwide, OpenPeppol, as the governing body, delegates responsibility to Peppol Authorities (PAs) to approveAccess Point (AP) service providers. Approval of Access Point (AP) service providers is additionally contingent on the service provider being a paid member of OpenPeppol. Peppol Authorities (PAs) may impose additional differing requirements and technical standards on Access Point (AP) service providers.
Peppol specification development and the primary implementation are governed by the OpenPeppol Association. The highest managing body is the General Assembly, which elects the Secretary General and the Managing Committee responsible for the operations.[7] Development is prepared in the work groups handling specific tasks and owned by a management team member. The work groups function on a volunteer basis, though many of the members are actually sent to the work group by either their employer or client, for example a specific user.[8]
Peppol originated via a project with the same name (with an uppercase stylised acronym) under theEuropean UnionCompetitiveness and Innovation Programme from May 2008 to August 2012. The European Union provided funding of over 15 million Euros to support the development of Peppol.[9] A consortium of 11 European countries being Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom also contributed to the development of Peppol over this period.[10]
The goal of the project was to solveinteroperability issues in electronic public procurement by aligning business processes using common standards, addressing common legal issues and developing open source technologies.[11] Agreement on the common standards for document content and on the technical aspects was reached through consensus amongst consortium members.
After the project ended the OpenPeppol Association was founded inBelgium on the 1st of September 2012 to continue the work on the framework.[12]
Peppol is widely used in many European countries:[9]
Outside Europe,Singapore became the first Peppol Authority outside Europe in May 2018. Its Nationwide E-invoicing Initiative is based on the Peppol technologies.[27][28] InJapan, Digital Agency, Government of Japan became a Peppol Authority in September 2021.[29][30]Peppol has also been considered as the e-invoicing solution inAustralia andNew Zealand.[31]Malaysia introduced Peppol e-invoicing to drive digital transformation and in alignment with its national e-invoicing framework.[32]