You need an EORI number if you are an economic operator, that is, a person who, in the course of his or her business, is involved in activities covered by the customs legislation (Article 5(5) of the Union Customs Code (Unionszollkodex - UZK)).

"Persons" are either natural or legal persons (for example, an AG or a GmbH) or multiple persons with legal capacity (in particular partnerships such as GbR, OHG, or KG).

Persons who "in the course of business are involved in activities covered by customs legislation" are not only all those directly involved (for example exporters, declarants, representatives) but also all those indirectly involved, and in particular those taking part in the IT-assisted ATLAS procedure, even if they do not have a technical role (as, for example, someone transmitting technical messages).

If you are not an economic operator, an EORI number is still required if other legal provisions of the European Union or legal provisions of a member state require it.

EORI numbers are issued free.

EORI numbers are assigned on request by the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden (GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement) free of charge. In order to lodge the request, the economic operator must complete and return form 0870 (Operator - EORI number master data) by post or fax to GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement.

Beginning on 1 October 2019 the economic operator can request an EORI or change the recorded data via the Customs Portal without change in format. From that day on the economic operator can create the necessary user account for the Customs Portal.

Customs Portal (LOGIN)

More information on how to request an EORI number

No. If you are an economic operator within the meaning of Article 5(5) of the Union Customs Code (Unionszollkodex - UZK), who is involved in activities covered by the customs legislation, it is mandatory for you to have your unique EORI number.

An economic operator established in the Union’s customs territory shall apply for the EORI number in the Member State where he or she is resident.

An economic operator who is not established in the customs territory of the Union should lodge the application for the EORI number in the first Member State where he or she lodges a customs declaration or requests a decision.

Private individuals (persons other than economic operators) need not have an EORI number if they only occasionally lodge customs declarations (Article 6 of the Commission Delegated Regulation supplementing the UZK - Delegated Act (Delegierte Verordnung zum UZK - DA)). The term "occasionally" here refers to less than ten customs declarations a year.
A person who is not required to provide an EORI number can still be registered in ATLAS under that person’s address.

Delegated Regulation supplementing the UZK (DA)

Please note:
As concerns exports for which an authorisation is required, even a private individual is generally obligated to provide an EORI number whenever such number is needed for the administrative procedure before the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA).

Where postal, express or courier services lodge customs declarations for customers other than economic operators within the meaning of Article 5(5) of the Union Customs Code (Unionszollkodex - UZK), the relevant service provider has no obligation to provide an EORI number. An EORI number is not required, either, where a person other than an economic operator lodges a written customs declaration under private travel. This exception, however, will apply only if the relevant person lodges customs declarations just occasionally, that is, less than ten times a year.

Since ATLAS release 8.4/AES release 2.1 has gone live, you, as an economic operator, must use an EORI number. From this point on it is no longer possible to use, or to be identified, within the ATLAS system without the EORI.

Exception:
For the time being, an economic operator who has not yet been assigned an EORI number may continue to lodge customs, export, and/or transit declarations as long as he or she can prove to have submitted an application for an EORI number either with the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden (GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement) or with the competent authority in another Member State. Where it is the case that you already have requested an EORI number from GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement, it is necessary that you provide form 0870, together with proof that you have indeed sent off the relevant application to that office, which may be in the form of a fax transmission report. Should you have requested an EORI number in a different Member State, you must also furnish suitable proof of having lodged the relevant application. It is then for the customs office to decide whether the supporting documents you provided justify your request for a derogation. Such exception does not extend to ATLAS participants for whom it is mandatory to have an EORI number.

You may check whether you have been allocated a valid EORI number by referring to the website of the European Commission.
Should you have agreed to publication of your registration details on the Internet (by ticking box 15 of form 0870) and have a valid EORI number, your company name and address will be indicated together with your EORI number.

To launch a validation request, enter your EORI number using the following link:
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/eos/eori_home.jsp?Lang=en

As an economic operator you can have not more than one unique EORI number, because the EORI number serves as a Europe-wide identification feature (Article 1(18) of the Delegated Regulation supplementing the Union Customs Code (Delegierte Verordnung zum UZK - DA) and Article 7(2) of the Regulation implementing the Union Customs Code (Durchführungsverordnung zum UZK - IA)). Any unincorporated parts of your company (branches or permanent establishments not having the capacity to perform legal acts), however, can not have their own unique EORI number.

Should General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden (GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement) establish that you are registered as an economic operator with several EORI numbers, one or more of which had been assigned to unincorporated parts (branches or permanent establishments) of your company - which may be the case during the transition period - you will be contacted by GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement. Any such EORI numbers assigned provisionally to unincorporated businesses (branches or permanent establishments) will be deactivated on a specific date which will have been agreed in consultation with you. In the course of such changeover, the relevant unincorporated parts of your company may, where appropriate, be assigned a branch number, and must thereafter identify themselves in ATLAS with both the EORI number and such additional branch number.

All operators and ATLAS users need to have an EORI number because without it they could not be identified in ATLAS. This is why, in the past, an EORI numbers were also assigned to a company’s branches, operating sites, or permanent establishments, that is unincorporated divisions which do not have their own legal capacity. The EU has been tolerating this practice for a transitional period.

You will be given and retain the EORI number until the point in time when the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden (GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement) link your operation’s dataset to the EORI number assigned to your company headquarters. This shift will be implemented in consultation with you and your head office. GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement will approach you when the time comes, there is no obligation on you to initiate procedures.

The General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden will always register you as a branch division under your company headquarter’s EORI number. If you engage in activities coming within the scope of customs legislation, you will therefore have to identify yourself by stating your head office’s EORI number.

No, you are not allowed to request a German EORI number. However, to continue participating in the electronic ATLAS procedure you are required to register your ATLAS subscriber data, and any changes thereof, with the Bundesfinanzdirektion Südost - Dienstort Weiden (Weiden-based Southeastern Federal Revenue Office) in order for your ATLAS data to be associated with your EORI number.

No, you need not apply for a German EORI number. You will be identified in the electronic ATLAS procedure by your foreign EORI number.

Branch or establishment numbers are assigned as follows:

• "0000" for a company's headquarters
• "0001", "0002", "0003" ... through "9999" unincorporated businesses (branch or permanent establishment).

The branch number allows your company to have electronic messages and mail (for example tax notices or approval decisions) transmitted to parts of the undertaking without legal capacity (branch or establishment). Parts of your undertaking (a branch or establishment) which are without legal capacity, but autonomous, can thus continue to deal with the Customs administration on their own behalf.

A branch number is only issued so that the parts of your undertaking (a branch or establishment) which are without legal capacity can deal with the Customs administration on their own behalf.
From a legal point of view, the parts of your undertaking without legal capacity are associated to you as the economic operator.

The legal addressee of notifications will always be you as the economic operator. In the eyes of the law every statement made to the Customs administration by the parts of your undertaking without legal capacity (such as customs declarations) shall be attributed directly to you as the economic operator.

Every holder of an EORI number (even if issued only for the transition period) will automatically be assigned the branch number "0000" for the head office of the economic operator.

In addition every part (branch or establishment) of your business without legal capacity can receive its own branch number if the economic operator, i.e. the holder of the EORI number, has a legitimate interest in it. The legitimate interest must be described in written form when lodging the branch number allocation request with the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden.

A particular legitimate interest in being assigned a branch number exists in particular if the part of business without legal capacity (branch or establishment)

• is an ATLAS participant,
• is, or is to become, a holder of customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts, or
• should be able to deal with the customs administration autonomously (by post).

No. Because the branch number is only a service of the customs administration, its request and use is voluntary. Every part of a company without its own legal capacity can always act under the name and address of the economic operator by using the head office's EORI number (with the branch number "0000", if applicable).

Yes, as a foreign economic operator (European Union and third country) you can request branch numbers for your unincorporated businesses (branches or permanent establishments) to supplement your (where appropriate, foreign) EORI number. This also applies if the unincorporated business has a foreign (postal) address. You will, though, only be able to use the branch number for clearances through ATLAS and AES performed in Germany, not in other Member States. The operator details, deferment accounts and authorisations under which your branch or establishment is registered in Germany can also only be used in the context of clearances taking place in Germany.

The General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden (GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement) will assign branch numbers (except for "0000", which is assigned automatically to every economic operator who has an EORI number). New clients, that is operators who do not have a valid EORI number, must lodge a specific request using form 0870. In the process, GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement will establish whether the economic operator has a justified interest in being assigned a branch number. In cases of doubt, GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement will contact the applicant directly to resolve the issue.
For existing clients there is a different procedure. Those operators who are already identified by an EORI number need not take any action. GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement will approach them in good time to register them under the EORI number of their head office and a new branch number, and to deactivate their provisionally assigned EORI number.
You can find more information in the following Q&A section. Branch numbers will be assigned to operators free of charge.

You, as an economic operator (i.e. the relevant head office) will be informed in writing by the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden when the changeover of the EORI numbers issued to parts (branch or establishment) of your undertaking without legal capacity are to be changed to branch numbers.

The General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office information notice will specify a uniform changeover date for all the parts of your undertaking without legal capacity.
From this time on, the parts of your undertaking without legal capacity (business branch or establishment) must identify themselves with the EORI number of the economic operator and their own branch number. The EORI number issued for a transitional period to the parts of your undertaking without legal capacity will be discontinued.

Special rules apply if at least one of the parts of your undertaking without legal capacity is an ATLAS participant or holds customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts. Further details can be found under the questions about special arrangements for ATLAS participants and holders of customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts.

The above-mentioned General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office information notice will give you detailed information about any steps you may be required to take. the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden is always available to give you information or to answer any questions you may have, even during the changeover process.

No. From the changeover date on it is mandatory that the parts of your undertaking without legal capacity identify themselves with the EORI number of the economic operator, and where appropriate their own branch numbers, insofar as they are involved in an economic activity that comes under customs legislation. All the EORI numbers issued to your parts of undertaking without legal capacity (branch or establishment) during the transition period will be disabled. Consequently, these EORI numbers will be invalid and can no longer be used.

In this case, the issue of branch numbers to other parts of the undertaking without legal capacity (branch or establishment) will not have any effect.

In principle all customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts which have been requested and held by parts (branch or establishment) of your undertaking without legal capacity, will be formally reassigned by the main customs office responsible for the part of undertaking without legal capacity, to you as an economic operator and holder of an EORI number.

This means that you, as an economic operator, will formally be the holder of all the permits and deferred payment accounts which previously had been held by parts (branch or establishment) of the undertaking without legal capacity.

No. It is true that all the customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts will, in fact, be reassigned to you - as the economic operator - by the main customs office that is competent for the unincorporated business (branch or permanent establishment), thus making you the formal owner of the customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts.

The branch number will, though, ensure that the unincorporated business (branch or establishment) continues to be the contact for the competent main customs office as far as "its" customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts are concerned.

You, as economic operator (i.e. the head office in each case) will be informed in writing by the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden (GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement) of the changeover from the EORI numbers issued during the transition period to branch numbers.
The letter will list all the parts (branch or establishment) of the undertaking without a legal personality that have been identified by GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement, and name the relevant customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts in each case.

Where a part (branch or establishment) of the undertaking without legal capacity is a holder of customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts, you, or your branch, must contact the main customs office responsible for your branch’s customs authorisations and/or deferred payment accounts, to prepare the next steps in the reassignment of the EORI number that had been issued for the transition period. In particular these steps will include the branch and the main customs office agreeing on a changeover date.

You should request any detailed changeover information from your competent main customs office, or your branches from their competent main customs offices, after you have received the information notice from GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement.

The notice from GZD - DO Dresden - Stammdatenmanagement will inform you in detail of all the steps that may have to be taken on your side. The General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden is always available to give you information or answer your questions, even during the changeover process.

No. After the changeover date it is mandatory that every part (branches or establishments) of your undertaking without legal capacity identifies itself using your EORI number and, where applicable, their own branch number to the extent that such parts of the company without legal capacity are involved in activities coming under customs legislation. All the EORI numbers issued to parts (branch or establishment) of an undertaking without legal capacity for the transition period will be disabled. Subsequently, such EORI numbers will be invalid and can no longer be used.

The changeover will be branch-related and take place at a time agreed upon by you and the General Directorate of Customs’ Master Data Management office in Dresden.