*October 31 update: The UK National System has now gone live, bringing the count of live National Systems to 27.
Many companies subject to the EU FMD regulations that take effect in early 2019 have questioned what will happen if the National Systems that will hold their data are not live by the February 9 deadline. Some of these companies have assumed that the law will not be able to be enforced on schedule, and may have lessened the urgency of their preparations.
In fact, 26 National Systems are live today, well in advance of the deadline. Of the remaining 4 that must be operational by February 9, one—the UK—is expected to be live imminently and the other 3 are in progress. Italy and Greece, two additional European countries subject to EU FMD regulations, have an additional 6 years to transition from their existing serialization regulations.
When asked recently, Christoph Krähenbühl, Senior Director at 3C Excellis and long-time member of EMVO, stated that at least 27 National Systems are expected to be live by the deadline. This would mean that geographically over 90% of the European market would be covered by an operational National System by February.
Here is the status of each country’s National System as of October 1, 2018:
| Live | Not yet live |
|---|---|
|
|
