Skip to content
Change language: English

Warning

UBL-CR-397: Leave out the legal entity details of the delivery party

In short

Warning: worth checking.

UBL-CR-397 means the delivery party has legal entity details (cac:PartyLegalEntity), such as a company registration number, which EN 16931 does not use there. Remove that block from cac:Delivery/cac:DeliveryParty, not the separate delivery party name (BT-70).

On this page

What it means

This rule looks at the delivery party (cac:DeliveryParty), the party the goods or services go to, in the delivery information of a UBL invoice or credit note. It checks that the party has no cac:PartyLegalEntity, which can hold a registered name and company registration number. The seller's company registration number (BT-30) and the buyer's company registration number (BT-47) have their own fields elsewhere in the invoice.

Why it matters

EN 16931 does not use a legal entity block under the delivery party. The delivery party's name (BT-70) is separate from that block.

How to fix it

Configure your invoice export to omit the delivery party's legal entity block. If you build the XML yourself, delete cac:PartyLegalEntity from cac:Delivery/cac:DeliveryParty. Keep any delivery party name (BT-70) in cac:Delivery/cac:DeliveryParty/cac:PartyName/cbc:Name; this rule does not ask you to remove that name. Recheck the exported file.

Once the file is corrected, check it again for free: Validate an invoice against EN 16931

Or fix the invoice in a form and download the corrected file, for 1 credit: Fix a rejected e-invoice

The rule as published

A UBL invoice should not include the DeliveryParty PartyLegalEntity

Where this rule applies

Rule set Version
EN 16931 (UBL) 1.3.17
EN 16931 (UBL credit note) 1.3.17
XRechnung 3.0 (UBL) 3.0.2
XRechnung 3.0 (UBL credit note) 3.0.2
Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (invoice) 2026.5
Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (credit note) 2026.5
SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (invoice) 2.0.3.13
SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (credit note) 2.0.3.13
France CTC (UBL invoice) 1.4.0-04
France CTC (UBL credit note) 1.4.0-04
CIUS-RO UBL Invoice 1.0.9 1.0.9
CIUS-RO UBL Credit Note 1.0.9 1.0.9
Rule text from phive-rules 4.6.4.

Check your file

Drop your e-invoice to see whether UBL-CR-397 still fails, and which other rules do.

Updated 6 November 2026