Frequently asked questions
What is the European Business Wallet?
A digital identity wallet the European Commission has proposed for organisations, companies, sole traders and public bodies, rather than for individuals. It would let them identify themselves, sign and seal documents, and exchange verified attestations with counterparts and public authorities across the EU. [1]
Is it law yet?
No. COM(2025) 838 is a Commission proposal, not adopted law. It is moving through the EU's ordinary legislative procedure: Parliament's lead committee voted on 10 September 2026 to open negotiations and plenary confirmed that decision on 7 October 2026, and the Council has adopted its own negotiating position, but both institutions can still change the text before it is adopted. [4] [6]
When would it apply?
Would my company have to use one?
No. Under the proposal, using a Business Wallet would stay voluntary for businesses. The obligation to accept a Wallet falls on public sector bodies, not on companies to hold one. [1]
Would public bodies have to accept it?
Yes. The proposal would require public sector bodies to accept a Wallet for identification, authentication, document submission and notifications. [1]
How does it differ from the EUDI Wallet?
The EU Digital Identity Wallet was established by eIDAS2 for natural and legal persons alike, and it carries the holder's own identity data and electronic attestations of attributes. COM(2025) 838 would amend Article 5a(1) of the eIDAS Regulation so that the obligation to provide a Wallet covers natural persons only. [8] [1]
The Business Wallet is a separate, dedicated instrument for economic operators and public sector bodies, a category that covers companies, public bodies, sole traders and the self-employed. Sole traders and the self-employed could also use their own EU Digital Identity Wallet to reach the trust services offered for Business Wallets, such as the secure communication channel, without acquiring a full Business Wallet. [1]
Is an "organisation wallet" the same thing?
In everyday use, yes. "Business wallet", "organisation wallet", "company wallet" and "enterprise wallet" all describe a wallet held by an organisation rather than by a person, and people use them interchangeably.
The term that is not a synonym is the EU Digital Identity Wallet, which eIDAS2 established for natural and legal persons alike and whose mandatory issuance COM(2025) 838 would narrow to natural persons. [8] [1]
What would it save?
Who would provide wallets?
Any entity established in the Union that notifies its intention to a national supervisory body and meets the requirements. The proposal uses a notification procedure rather than prior authorisation, with the existing eIDAS supervisory bodies supervising providers after the fact. [1]
The Council general approach would replace that notification with an application for authorisation and extend the review to 60 days, so who may provide a Wallet is one of the points still open in the negotiations. [13]
Where can I read the proposal?
You can read the proposal itself, or track its progress through Parliament's Legislative Observatory. [1] [4]
Did the Commission carry out an impact assessment?
Not a formal one. The Commission granted a derogation from an impact assessment, because the Business Wallets build directly on the policy choice it had already assessed in 2021 for the European Digital Identity Framework. [1]
Instead, a staff working document, SWD(2025) 837, analyses the problem, the policy option and its expected costs and benefits in detail. [12]
Would it cost a company anything?
Could companies outside the EU use one?
Yes, the proposal provides for it. Its chapter on international aspects would let a provider issue a European Business Wallet to an economic operator established in a third country, once that operator has been issued Wallet owner identification data and a unique identifier and its identity has been verified using the methods eIDAS sets out. [1]
It would be one Wallet identity per operator. An operator could request only one set of owner identification data, the provider would notify the request to its supervisory body, and Member States would cooperate so that no operator established outside the Union ends up with two. [1]
The framework would also work the other way: the Commission could recognise business wallets, or whole frameworks, offered in third countries as equivalent, provided they are interoperable with the eIDAS trust framework and support at least identification, authentication and the exchange of electronic attestations of attributes. The wallet providers themselves would still have to be established in the Union. [1]
How would it relate to the Once-Only Technical System and the Single Digital Gateway?
The Single Digital Gateway was established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1724, which also provides for a technical system for the automated cross-border exchange of evidence between competent authorities. That system applies the "once-only" principle: a business should not have to supply the same data to public authorities twice. [14]
The proposal treats the Business Wallets as complementary to that system rather than a replacement for it. It says the Regulation would be without prejudice to the right of legal persons to submit information only once, and that an economic operator should be able to hold and transmit evidence retrieved through the Once-Only Technical System in its Wallet, and to combine that evidence with what the Wallet already holds. [1]
The division it draws is about who exchanges with whom. The Once-Only Technical System covers exchanges between public sector bodies, while the Business Wallets would cover exchanges between public sector bodies and economic operators, and between economic operators. [1]
What about personal data of employees acting on behalf of a company?
A Business Wallet would belong to the organisation, not to the person operating it. The proposal defines an authorised representative as a natural or legal person acting on behalf of the Wallet owner under an authorisation the owner has granted, and defines the Wallet front end as the interface that interacts with users acting on behalf of the owner. [1]
Where that involves personal data, general data protection law applies unchanged. The proposal states that Regulation (EU) 2016/679 applies to all personal data processing under it, and that the European Digital Directory, which would hold personal data of economic operators, would be built on data minimisation and purpose limitation, with data protection by design and by default and pseudonymisation where appropriate. [1]
Selective disclosure is offered as a further safeguard. The proposal borrows it from the European Digital Identity Framework and describes it as letting Wallet users control the type and amount of data communicated to other Wallet owners and to relying parties. [1]