The European Commission has published an Age Verification Use Case Manual for the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, providing a practical guide to how citizens across member states will prove their age for access to restricted services without disclosing unnecessary personal data.
The manual describes a selective-disclosure mechanism built into the EUDI Wallet that allows a user to confirm they meet a specific age threshold – such as 16, 18, or 21 – using a verifiable digital credential issued by a trusted national authority. The wallet generates a cryptographic proof of eligibility and shares it with the requesting service; the service receives only the age confirmation and no other identifying information.
The use case covers a range of age-restricted contexts: online adult content and gambling platforms, in-person purchases of age-restricted goods such as alcohol and tobacco, venue entry, and age-gated public services. The Commission estimates the mechanism could reduce per-transaction verification costs from the current 1 to 5 euros to less than 5 cents.
Technically, proof-of-age attestations follow the attribute schema specified in ISO/IEC 18013-5, the Mobile Driving Licence standard, and ISO/IEC 23220-2 for generic eID systems. The attestation format is ISO mDoc. Presentation is supported via the W3C Digital Credentials API and OpenID for Verifiable Presentations (OpenID4VP), with zero-knowledge proof support listed as forthcoming.
Issuers of proof-of-age attestations must be placed on a trusted list maintained and published by the Commission. Member States notify the Commission of their accredited issuers, enabling cross-border verification across the EU. Germany has proposed making the EUDI Wallet a mandatory age gate for social media access, a policy discussion the manual’s publication is likely to inform.
Six member states – Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain – are currently piloting the age-verification blueprint on which the manual is based. The blueprint, whose second version was released in October 2025, includes open-source technical specifications available at ageverification.dev. The Commission previously selected Deutsche Telekom and Scytáles to develop the age verification solution for integration with the EUDI Wallet.
The legal basis for the use case rests on Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, which requires providers of online platforms accessible to minors to implement appropriate privacy and safety measures. The EUDI Wallet age-verification mechanism is positioned as a compliance tool for platforms operating under the DSA.
Sources: European Commission, European Commission Digital Strategy
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
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