eCOC: what professionals need to know

What changes in your workflows

If you register new vehicles bought in the Union, the paper certificate stops being the carrier of the information. The manufacturer makes the data available to the approval authority, which uses it directly. In practice you no longer have a document to chase from the seller or to attach to the file: the data moves without you.

That removes a classic source of delay — the certificate that never arrives — but creates another: if the data has not yet reached the authority, you have no fallback document to produce. During the transition period, until 29 November 2026 at the latest, paper and printouts of the eCOC remain accepted.

What does not change

On the used market, which accounts for most of the volume handled by brokers and dealers, the process is identical to what it was: the certificate of conformity is requested from the manufacturer, using the chassis number, with the turnaround specific to each brand.

The same blocking points remain, and they are the ones that cost days:

• The ten-year rule after manufacture on older vehicles.
• Vehicles originating outside the European Union, for which no European certificate exists.
• Misidentified categories, M1 against N1, which send a file back to the start.
• Converted vehicles, where the manufacturer documents the chassis only.

The commercial risk to watch

The issue is less technical than commercial. A customer who has read that “the COC goes digital in 2026” will ask for an eCOC for their used car, and an ill-informed salesperson may promise it. The promise cannot be kept: the object does not exist for that vehicle.

Our recommendation: align your sales language with the text. You can legitimately promise digital delivery of the COC by e-mail; you cannot promise a regulatory eCOC on a used vehicle. The distinction protects your customer as much as it protects you.

Working with us in volume

We handle professional requests through the same channel as private ones, but with a single point of contact and consolidated invoicing. Public prices are those of our list by brand; volume terms are quoted individually.

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