QERDS
A QERDS, a qualified electronic registered delivery service, is the eIDAS trust service for sending electronic data with legal proof of who sent it, who received it, when, and that it was not altered in transit. It gives that proof EU-wide legal weight, the same way eIDAS gives a QES the weight of a handwritten signature.
eIDAS defines two layers. An electronic registered delivery service (ERDS) is any service that transmits data between parties and produces evidence of sending and receipt while protecting the data from loss, theft, damage or unauthorised change; its use cannot be denied legal effect or admissibility as evidence purely because it is electronic. A qualified electronic registered delivery service (QERDS) is an ERDS that additionally meets Article 44: it must be provided by a qualified trust service provider, identify the sender with a high level of confidence, identify the addressee before the data is delivered, secure the sending and receiving of data with a qualified electronic signature or seal, clearly flag any later change to the data needed for sending or receiving, and timestamp the sending, receiving and any such change with a qualified electronic timestamp.
Because the addressee has to be identified first, a QERDS is not a drop-in replacement for emailing an arbitrary address; sender and recipient typically both register with a qualified provider before an exchange has this legal weight. In return, data sent and received through a QERDS enjoys a presumption, valid in every member state, of the integrity of the data, of sending by the identified sender, of receipt by the identified addressee and of the accuracy of the date and time, so the party relying on the delivery does not have to separately prove those facts if it is disputed. eIDAS 2.0 added a requirement for qualified providers to make their services interoperable with each other, so a message sent through one qualified provider can reach a recipient registered with a different one, with the detailed technical standards for that interoperability and for the underlying sending and receiving processes set out in a 2025 Commission implementing regulation.
Only a service from a provider listed as qualified for this service on a national Trusted List actually carries the Article 43 presumptions; a product marketed as 'registered email' or a national certified-mail scheme is not automatically a QERDS unless its provider holds that qualified status, so the label itself is not proof.
Related terms
Is sending something through a non-qualified electronic registered delivery service legally worthless?
No. Under eIDAS, evidence from any electronic registered delivery service cannot be denied legal effect or admissibility as evidence purely because it is electronic or not qualified. What only a QERDS adds is the stronger, EU-wide presumption that the data is intact and that it was sent by the identified sender and received by the identified addressee at a given date and time, which shifts the burden of proof onto whoever disputes it.