Relying Party

A Relying Party in the eIDAS 2.0 framework is any natural or legal person that depends on electronic identification, authentication, or electronic attestations of attributes presented via the European Digital Identity Wallet or other recognised eID means to deliver a service or fulfil a legal obligation. Under the revised regulation, the concept of relying parties is significantly expanded and formalised compared to the original eIDAS.

Certain categories of relying parties are now legally required to accept the EUDIW when users choose to present it. These mandatory acceptance scenarios include: very large online platforms (as defined under the Digital Services Act) for user authentication; financial institutions performing customer identification under anti-money laundering rules; healthcare providers when required by EU or national law to verify patient identity; and public administrations for access to digital public services. Relying parties must register with the Member State in which they are established before accessing wallet data, and they must declare in advance which attributes they intend to request and for what purpose.

This registration requirement is a key privacy safeguard: it prevents unauthorised data harvesting and gives supervisory bodies oversight of who is accessing citizen data. Relying parties must also comply with data minimisation principles, requesting only the attributes strictly necessary for the service. The wallet interface will clearly present to the user what data is being requested and by whom, empowering informed consent.

For businesses, understanding the relying party framework is essential: organisations must assess whether they fall into a mandatory acceptance category, implement the technical integration to verify wallet presentations, and comply with registration and data protection requirements.