Deutsche Post - Validation changes (March 2024)

Additional Shipment Data now required!

As of the 10th March 2024, additional shipment data will become mandatory when shipping to the below destinations: 
 
Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
 
The additional shipment data required is as follows:
  1. Recipient Contact Details
    An e-mail address or phone number for the recipient must be provided. Many postal operators have implemented electronic pick-up notifications by e-mail or SMS and the provision of this information is essential to ensure the smooth delivery of your shipments.

  2. HS (Harmonized System) Code
    For all shipments requiring a CN22 customs declaration, it will be mandatory to provide an HS Code (also known as a Commodity Code) for the shipment contents. HS Codes are an internationally standardized system for classifying goods and commodities maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO). It is used by over 200 WCO member countries and economies as the basis for calculating duties and taxes and for the collection of international trade statistics amongst many other purposes. The provision of HS codes will help to make the customs clearance process more efficient and reduce the possibility for delays. Various lookup tools are available online to help you determine the correct HS Code for the items you are sending.

In addition, the update will also include the following changes (Shipping API and Customer Portal):
  • New validation rules for question marks or replacement characters � in recipient data
    • Field recipient: max. one question mark is accepted
    • Fields address lines 1-3, city, postal code, state: none is accepted
  • The category „gift“ will be removed as content type for CN22 data
  • Recipient name: field length is increased to 35 character
 

Please Note: When using Ishipper, these fields will show as optional, however it is in fact mandatory that these fields are populated and sent to the carrier. Failure to do so could risk in the API call being rejected.