CWA 15579

Compliance with EU Directive on eInvoice Legislation

[1] In compliance with CWA 15579 Digi-Bill™ uses both Qualified and non-Qualified Digital Signatures, as required by your national law. It also complies with 2001/115/EC [2], CWA 15580 [3],CWA 15581 [4] and CWA 15582 [5].

According to the EU Council Directive 2001/115/EC [2] “invoices sent by electronic means shall be accepted by Member States provided that the authenticity of the origin and integrity of the contents are guaranteed”. This could be guaranteed “by means of an advanced electronic signature within the meaning of Article 2 (2) of Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures; Member States may however ask for the advanced electronic signature to be based on a qualified certificate and created by a secure signature creation device, within the meaning of Article 2(6) and (10) of the aforementioned Directive”.

It further states that: “Authenticity of the origin and integrity of the content has to be guaranteed when using electronic data interchange (EDI) as defined in Commission Recommendation 1994/820/EC [2] of 19 October 1994 relating to the legal aspects “when the agreement relating to the exchange provides for the use of procedures guaranteeing the authenticity of the origin and integrity of the data”. However, as per the Directive [2]: “Member States may, subject to conditions which they lay down, require that an additional summary document on paper is necessary” to be exchanged, summarising a set of invoices. Where the applicable law allows for it this summary document could also be exchanged electronically. It is to be remarked that usage of EDI is subject to meeting the previously italicised wording. To exchange this summary document electronically also electronic signatures can be used to guarantee authenticity of the origin and integrity”.

In compliance with CWA 15579, the Digi-Bill™ uses the required advanced electronic signature and timestamp and also ensures that:

• Generation of the electronic signatures for electronic invoices must be possible also in an automated and reliable process that is law abiding
• Digi-Sign can act on behalf of a taxable entity
• Enough information is provided to ensure long term validity to the electronic signatures of the electronic invoices, the origin and integrity of the content of the invoices and that their their readability is guaranteed throughout the storage period


References & Supporting Standards

In compliance with CWA 15579, Digi-Bill™ complies with these supporting standards:




• x.509 Standard
• Certificate Policy [CP] is indicated
• The OID of the CP is written in the certificatePolicies extension
• x.500 attribute as specified in X.520 [6] and in X.521 [7] is used
• The VAT code of the entity issuing the invoice can be added
• The private key related to the certified public key resides in a Secure Signature Creation Device
• Invoices can be archived from 4 to 11 years, as required
• The CP permits the use and issue of single signatures and automated signatures
• Compliance with ETSI TS 101 861 [6] Time stamping profile
• Compliance with ETSI 102 023 [7] Time stamping profile