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Warning

UBL-CR-402: The delivery party should not carry a power of attorney

In short

Warning: worth checking.

UBL-CR-402 means the UBL file includes a power of attorney for the delivery party (cac:PowerOfAttorney), which EN 16931 has no field for. Remove that element and export again.

On this page

What it means

The check looks at the delivery information (BG-13) of the invoice or credit note. It warns when the party the goods are delivered to (cac:Delivery/cac:DeliveryParty) contains a cac:PowerOfAttorney block, which says who may act on that party's behalf. UBL has this element, but EN 16931 does not use it. For the party delivered to, EN 16931 only has the name (BT-70), the location identifier (BT-71) and the delivery address (BG-15).

Why it matters

A power of attorney is not part of the EN 16931 UBL mapping for the delivery party. This rule flags the extra XML block as a warning.

How to fix it

Delete cac:PowerOfAttorney from cac:Delivery/cac:DeliveryParty in your XML export. If the buyer needs to know about the authorisation, put it in the invoice note (BT-22). Export the corrected file and check it again.

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 PowerOfAttorney

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-402 still fails, and which other rules do.

Updated 6 November 2026