CoC — certificate of conformity

The certificate is issued by the manufacturer for an individual vehicle and ties that vehicle, by its identification number, to a type approval. It lists the technical values the registration and the tax calculation will be based on.

Why it matters when buying

Registering a car brought from another member state is routine when this document exists and difficult when it does not. Obtaining a replacement is possible but slow, and for a car built for a non-European market it is not possible at all, because no European approval underlies it.

Its second role is fiscal. The values printed on it — emissions, mass, power, and for electric cars the certified consumption — are the inputs national registration taxes are calculated from. A discrepancy between the certificate and a national database is a common cause of a registration stalling, and it is resolved through the importer rather than at the counter.

When buying used across a border, confirming that this document exists and matches the vehicle is worth more than any inspection of the car itself. It is also the single most common thing missing from a private import that looked like a bargain.

Related: WVTA · VIN · parallel import