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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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Tools

X12 168 — Contract Information

Structured transmission of a contract (master agreement, blanket PO, service contract) between two parties for later operational use.

Purpose

The 168 distributes a formal contract (master purchase agreement, multi-year blanket PO, service-level contract) in EDI. Downstream operational transactions (850 PO, 810 Invoice) reference this 168 via REF, so that the receiver checks compliance with contract terms (negotiated price, min/max quantity, lead time, penalties).

Envelope structure

The 168 travels inside the three X12 envelope levels (ISA/IEA, GS/GE with functional group CO, and ST/SE). Didactic example in 004010:

x12 example-168.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*BUYERINC      *ZZ*SUPPLIERCO    *260516*2200*U*00401*000000168*0*P*>~
GS*CO*BUYERINC*SUPPLIERCO*20260516*2200*1*X*004010~
ST*168*0001~
BCT*00*CONTRACT-2026-001*20260516~
N1*BY*BUYER INC*92*BUYER01~
N1*SE*SUPPLIER CO*92*SUPP01~
DTM*036*20260101~
DTM*037*20281231~
LX*1~
REF*PD*PRODUCT-XYZ~
AMT*MX*100.00~
SE*8*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000168~

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BCT Beginning of Contract.
  • Parties — N1 repeating.
  • Contract terms — REF, DTM effective period, PER contacts.
  • Line items — LX by item with price, qty range, lead time.
  • Summary — SE.

Common pitfalls

  • No version: contractual amendments need a new 168 with version REF.
  • Item without structured pricing: fixed price without tier pricing — loses the blanket-contract benefit.
  • Confidentiality: contracts carry sensitive pricing. Transmit only over encrypted AS2.

Documentation

The 168 code and the Contract Information name are public and listed at x12.org/products/transaction-sets. The full loops/qualifiers/code-lists structure is distributed by DISA via proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3). ediverse.io covers only public concepts, the envelope and didactic examples.