The contracting entity is the cloud provider's company that holds an account's contract and issues its invoices; for customers in Europe it is usually a European company rather than the US parent. The providers decide which one from country, address, tax registration number and agreement type, and it can change when those do. For cost, that matters beyond VAT: the contracting entity decides the payment methods, the bank account for transfers, the supplier record finance posts invoices against and, at AWS, the law the customer agreement is governed by. This page describes what the providers document. The tax side is covered in VAT and reverse charge on cloud invoices; contract questions are for your legal adviser.
How it works
AWS
The AWS Customer Agreement sets the contracting party by an account's Account Country. That is the country of a valid tax registration number; without one, the country of the billing address, unless a credit card on file and the contact address both belong to another country. For Europe, the Middle East and Africa the contracting party is Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL in Luxembourg, with separate companies for South Africa and Türkiye. For AWS EMEA SARL, Luxembourg law and the courts of Luxembourg City apply. When the Account Country changes, the contracting party changes with it without further action; with no location information it is Amazon Web Services, Inc. AWS makes the assignment at every invoicing for each account separately, and the payer account sees the assigned seller of every linked account in its tax settings.
AWS Europe has been selling since 1 July 2018 and has branches in many countries that are the same legal entity. Certain telecommunications services are sold by AMCS LLC, a different Amazon entity. In AWS Marketplace, Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL bills accounts in EMEA outside South Africa and Türkiye when the seller is EMEA-eligible, and transfers go to its payment processor Amazon Payments Europe S.C.A.; other sellers' purchases are billed by Amazon Web Services, Inc., and professional services purchases fall outside this rule. For the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, AWS also names Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL as the contracting party for accounts with a customer location in the EU, although separate companies under German law run the infrastructure (sovereign offerings of the hyperscalers).
Azure
Under a Microsoft Customer Agreement, Microsoft sells in a set of countries through a local subsidiary under its Limited Risk Distributor model; in Europe it names Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For EMEA the licensor is then Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, and Microsoft says payment methods do not change. For customers outside the model and for regular invoices, the billing entity in EMEA is Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited. Billing geography and currency follow the legal address given at signing. An existing account's country cannot be changed; after a move the customer creates a new account and has support transfer the subscriptions to it. A customer buying through a Cloud Solution Provider receives the invoice from the partner.
Google Cloud
Google sets the contracting entity by the customer's billing address and the services an agreement covers. For Google Cloud Platform and Google Cloud Marketplace, that is Google Cloud EMEA Limited in Dublin for EMEA, Google Cloud France for France, Google Cloud Italy S.r.l. for Italy and Google Cloud Poland Sp. z o.o. for Poland. When a Partner Advantage partner resells, the Google entity follows the partner's billing address. The Google payments profile records who pays: country, profile type, name, address and, where legally required, tax ID. The profile type cannot be changed once created, and neither can a Cloud Billing account's currency.
What it means for your cost
The contracting entity changes no list price, but it decides which invoice comes from whom and how it is paid. When it changes, the invoice changes with usage unchanged. Microsoft documents such a case: customers in Italy moved from Microsoft Ireland to Microsoft Srl on 1 March 2024, and according to Microsoft their invoices went from reverse charge at 0% to 22% VAT. What that means for tax is discussed in the guide AWS and Azure invoices: reverse charge or local VAT?; the judgement in a given case is your tax adviser's.
For procurement and finance, that gives a checklist per contracting entity:
| What | Where it is shown | What depends on it |
|---|---|---|
| Company and branch | the invoice; at AWS the payer account's tax settings | supplier record, tax invoice |
| Bank account for transfers | the invoice; a separate one for AWS Marketplace | payment run |
| Payment methods | payment settings; at AWS Europe SEPA direct debit in euros, Bacs direct debit in pounds, pay by invoice | due dates, bank reconciliation |
| Currency | AWS payment profile per seller, Azure billing profile, Google billing account | the report's exchange-rate policy |
| Agreement terms | the customer agreement, at AWS by contracting party | governing law and courts, questions for your legal adviser |
| Reseller | the partner agreement | invoice from the partner, not the provider |
The shape of the invoice depends on the entity too: a customer paying AWS Europe by invoice receives a day's subscription purchases and credit memos in consolidated daily invoices by default. AWS asked customers on invoicing terms to update billing systems and open purchase orders when they moved to AWS Europe. Which procurement route produces which invoice is covered in cloud procurement: routes, contracts and renewals, how accounts come together under one billing account in billing accounts and hierarchies.
Where it goes wrong
- One company's accounts with different contracting entities. Symptom: a dollar invoice from Amazon Web Services, Inc. arrives beside the euro invoices from AWS EMEA SARL. Cause: AWS assigns each account separately, and a member account without a tax registration number and with a billing address in, say, the United States falls to AWS Inc. The payer account's tax settings show the seller per account; there the payer can also turn on tax settings inheritance, which gives member accounts its tax registration information.
- A supplier record that no longer matches. Symptom: accounts payable rejects an invoice or posts it to the old supplier. Cause: a new Account Country, the move to a local Microsoft subsidiary or a relocation has changed the issuer.
- Marketplace purchases booked as the provider's service. Symptom: a payment cannot be matched to an AWS invoice, or software shows up as an AWS service. Cause: for EMEA-eligible sellers the transfer goes to Amazon Payments Europe, for others AWS Inc. bills, and in both cases the seller remains the third party (marketplace purchases on the cloud invoice).
- The partner overlooked as supplier. Symptom: procurement waits for a Microsoft invoice that never arrives. Cause: when buying through a Cloud Solution Provider, the partner issues the invoice.
- A new supplier for the European Sovereign Cloud. Symptom: one of the German operating companies is set up as supplier for the new accounts. Cause: for customers in the EU the contracting party remains AWS EMEA SARL.
Sources
Read on 2026-10-16. AWS AWS Customer Agreement, AWS Europe FAQs, Tax help: European Union, Setting up your tax information, Paying for products in AWS Marketplace, Using payment profiles, Consolidated billing in AWS EMEA, Managing your SEPA direct debit payment method, Managing your Bacs direct debit payment method and AWS European Sovereign Cloud FAQs; Microsoft Understand your Microsoft Customer Agreement invoice, Microsoft Customer Agreement FAQ and Change contact information for an Azure billing account; Google Google contracting entity, Cloud Billing overview and Currencies available for Cloud Billing self-serve, auto-pay accounts.