Amendment to the law on electronic invoicing

Following the lack of interest generated by the Luxembourg law of 16 May 2019 on electronic invoicing in public procurement — which allowed public purchasers to receive and process electronic invoices — the law of 13 December 2021 now amends it by imposing an obligation on businesses to send their invoices relating to the performance of a public contract in an electronic format.

This new obligation will take effect within a period of between 5 and 10 or even 15 months (depending on the size of the company, with larger companies having to adapt more quickly).

On a practical level, it should be noted that a Grand-Ducal regulation (Mémorial A870) has already been published in parallel, imposing the European network Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine) as a “common delivery network” within the meaning of the law, as well as the possibility for public purchasers – as an alternative non-automated technical solution – to set up an online invoicing form, or a template invoice to be downloaded and completed.

It will be interesting to see whether the alternative system becomes the main system or whether the various contracting authorities and entities opt for the Peppol network.