In brief
Technical complexity, legal uncertainty and operational constraints mean that electronic invoicing is underused across the EU, the European Commission’s Informal Task Force on e-Invoicing says. In a report, European Electronic Invoicing, the task force claims e-invoicing could cut the average processing cost of a paper invoice across Europe by 80%. The e-Invoicing Directive 2001/115/EC, passed in 2001, does not work as it should, claims the report, because the discretion given to member states in recognising the validity of electronic invoices has resulted in diverse national laws.
