What changed for intermediation in Germany?

Intermediation activities gained their own headings in WZ 2025, following the European change in NACE Rev. 2.1. Statistics Netherlands states that a considerable number of codes for intermediaries were added, covering companies that provide a link between customers and the service, product or seller, such as online marketplaces and comparison sites. The Spanish statistical institute states that numerous new classes were created for intermediation activities, previously grouped with the products or services being intermediated or under the residual business support class.

Because WZ matches NACE completely to class level, the same new classes exist in the German structure at class level, with German subclasses inside them where Destatis added finer detail. The change separates the linking activity from the underlying activity. An intermediary does not supply the product or service. It brings the parties together.

What is intermediation in the German structure?

Intermediation in the German structure is the activity of linking buyers and sellers, or users and providers, for a product or service supplied by another party. The activity can operate through a platform, a marketplace, a comparison site, or an agency arrangement. The defining feature is the linking role, not the technology. Eurostat and the CSO in Ireland both note revised rules and a revised treatment for intermediation as conceptual changes in NACE Rev. 2.1. In each section, the notes for the new classes state the boundary: what counts as intermediation for that type of product or service, and what remains in the class for the underlying activity. A reader must read the note for the section concerned, because the boundary is stated section by section. This guide does not list German intermediation subclasses, because none were verified on a Destatis page fetched for this work, and a list from a secondary summary could misstate a heading.

Former grouping	New grouping	Boundary question
Class for the product or service intermediated	Intermediation class in the same section	Does the unit supply the product, or link the parties?
Residual business support class	Intermediation class in the same section	Is the linking the activity described?
No separate heading	New intermediation class	Does the note include the linking activity?

The table above describes the movement in general terms. It names no class, because the classes sit in most sections and must be read section by section in the structure and notes.

How do the new headings affect old German headings?

Old headings lose the intermediation activities that were previously grouped inside them, and the residual business support heading loses the intermediation activities grouped there for want of a better place. That loss changes the scope of the old headings, even where their titles stay the same. A German series for a product or service class that once included intermediation will show a fall when intermediation moves out, even if the underlying activity did not fall. Which old headings contribute to each new intermediation class is shown in the correspondence tables, and the new scope of the old headings is shown in the notes. A reader who compares old and new figures for a product class without allowing for the movement will misread the trend. Double reporting and backcasting give a comparable basis where they are published for the domain concerned.

How is an intermediation heading checked in Germany?

An intermediation heading is checked by reading the note for the candidate intermediation class and the note for the candidate underlying activity class together, in the WZ structure on the classification server, and in the Eurostat notes for the class level. The two notes are written to be read as a pair at the boundary. If the unit supplies the product or service, the underlying class describes it. If the unit only links the parties, the intermediation class describes it. If the unit does both, the principal activity method, as described in the introductory guidelines, governs the single statistical description in general terms, and this guide does not apply it to any specific business. The keyword index on the classification server can help find headings, but an index entry is a pointer, not a decision, and a keyword that points to more than one heading must be followed to each heading and tested in its note.

What does the change not decide?

Whether a platform, marketplace or agency is regulated in any particular way is not decided by the change, and neither are tax, licensing, funding or employment questions. The authorities applying their own rules hold those matters. The classification groups the linking activity for statistics. A WZ code for intermediation describes the statistical grouping. It does not describe the legal character of the arrangement. The entry for a specific unit is confirmed with the register that holds it. This site holds no register and decides no entry.

Linking parties is now grouped on its own in most sections of WZ 2025, the old product and residual headings lose those activities, and the paired notes for each section state where the boundary falls. ”