EU Company Search — Spain, France & UK Official Registries

Search companies across Spain, France and the United Kingdom simultaneously from a single query. Powered by official government registries with no scraping and no rate limits. Returns a unified company profile with name, registration number, status, address, directors, VAT number, and optional VIES EU VAT validation.

Data sources:

• 🇫🇷 France — INSEE SIRENE via Recherche-Entreprises API (api.gouv.fr) — 25M companies — CC0
• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Companies House API — 5M companies — OGL
• 🇪🇸 Spain — OpenCorporates (Registro Mercantil data) — 3.5M companies

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Why This Actor?

Cross-border company research normally requires three separate tools and manual data merging. This actor searches all three registries in parallel and returns a unified schema in a single run — ideal for:

• Researching a multinational group's European entities in one query
• Finding subsidiaries of a known parent company across jurisdictions
• Cross-border KYB / due diligence workflows
• Identifying a company's EU VAT registration status

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Use Cases

1. Multi-Jurisdiction Due Diligence

Search a company name across three countries at once. Instantly see all registered entities — a holding company in France, an operating subsidiary in Spain, a UK branch.

query: "Accor" → Accor SA (FR, founded 1960) + Accor Hotels Ltd (GB) + entities in ES

2. EU VAT Verification

Enable validateVat: true to check all returned VAT numbers against the official VIES system (EU Commission). Get vat_valid: true/false for compliance workflows.

3. CRM Enrichment

Feed a company name and get back registration number, address, incorporation date, and directors across all countries — ready for CRM import or contract KYB.

4. Competitor Intelligence

Map a competitor's European footprint: which countries, what legal entities, founding dates, registration numbers.

5. Automated n8n / Make Pipelines

Use as a step in an enrichment workflow: company name → EU profile → VIES check → CRM update.

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
query	string	required	Company name to search (e.g. "Airbus", "Santander", "Rolls Royce")
countries	string	"ES,FR,GB"	Comma-separated country codes to search
maxPerCountry	integer	5	Max results per country (1–20)
validateVat	boolean	false	Validate VAT numbers via VIES. Adds ~1s per company.

Example: Search "Airbus" across all three countries

{
  "query": "Airbus",
  "countries": "ES,FR,GB",
  "maxPerCountry": 5,
  "validateVat": true
}

Example: Find UK entities of a French group

{
  "query": "BNP Paribas",
  "countries": "FR,GB",
  "maxPerCountry": 10
}

Example: Spain and France only, 3 results per country

{
  "query": "Inditex",
  "countries": "ES,FR",
  "maxPerCountry": 3
}

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Output Format

Each result contains a unified schema regardless of source country:

Field	Description
country	ISO country code: ES, FR, GB
registry	Source registry name
company_number	Registration number in that country
name	Official registered company name
status	active, dissolved, inactive, etc.
type	Legal form (SAS, Ltd, SA, S.L., etc.)
date_creation	Incorporation date (YYYY-MM-DD)
address	Registered address
postal_code	Postal / ZIP code
city	City
region	Region / county
naf_code	Activity code (FR: NAF, ES/GB: SIC where available)
employees	Employee range (FR only)
vat_number	VAT number if available in registry
vat_valid	true/false/null — VIES validation result (only if validateVat: true)
directors	Array of director names and roles (FR and ES)
source_url	Direct link to company page on official registry

Sample Output

[
  {
    "country": "FR",
    "registry": "INSEE SIRENE (api.gouv.fr)",
    "company_number": "383474814",
    "name": "AIRBUS",
    "status": "active",
    "type": "5710",
    "date_creation": "1991-10-18",
    "address": "2 ROND-POINT EMILE DEWOITINE 31700 BLAGNAC",
    "postal_code": "31700",
    "city": "BLAGNAC",
    "region": "31",
    "naf_code": "30.30Z",
    "employees": "53",
    "vat_number": "FR27383474814",
    "vat_valid": true,
    "directors": [
      "GUILLAUME FAURY (Président Directeur Général)",
      "CHRISTIAN SCHERER (Chief Commercial Officer)"
    ],
    "source_url": "https://annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr/entreprise/383474814"
  },
  {
    "country": "GB",
    "registry": "Companies House (UK)",
    "company_number": "03468788",
    "name": "AIRBUS GROUP LIMITED",
    "status": "active",
    "type": "ltd",
    "date_creation": "1997-11-24",
    "address": "Pegasus House, Gatwick Road, Crawley, RH10 9AH",
    "postal_code": "RH10 9AH",
    "city": "Crawley",
    "vat_number": "",
    "vat_valid": null,
    "directors": [],
    "source_url": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03468788"
  }
]

---

Coverage

Country	Registry	Total companies	Active	Directors	Financials
🇫🇷 France	INSEE SIRENE	25M	~4.5M	✅	✅ (~1M)
🇬🇧 UK	Companies House	5M	~3.9M	Via CH API	❌
🇪🇸 Spain	OpenCorporates / Registro Mercantil	3.5M	~2M	Partial	❌

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VIES VAT Validation

When validateVat: true, the actor validates each company's VAT number against the official VIES system (European Commission). VIES covers all EU member states.

• FR VAT numbers: validated for French companies via VIES
• ES VAT numbers: validated for Spanish companies via VIES
• GB VAT numbers: not covered by VIES (UK left EU in 2020)

VIES validation adds approximately 1 second per company with a valid VAT number. Rate limited by the EU Commission server — the actor handles retries automatically.

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Pricing

Pay Per Result: $0.002 per company profile returned + $0.00005/run base cost.

Searching 3 countries × 5 results = up to 15 results = $0.03 per run.

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Related Actors

For deeper extraction from each country:

• France Company Search — INSEE SIRENE — full France registry with 1,000 result capacity and ATECO/NAF filters
• Spain New Companies BORME — Spain new incorporations with province and sector filters

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FAQ

Is the data legal to use for commercial purposes? Yes. France (CC0), UK (OGL v3.0) and Spain (CC BY) all publish company registry data as open data licensed for reuse.

How fresh is the data? France: daily updates. UK: near real-time (Companies House updates continuously). Spain: depends on the underlying source.

Can I search only one country? Yes — set countries: "FR" or countries: "GB" to restrict the search.

Is the query an exact match? No — it's a fuzzy text search across company names. All three registries support partial name matching.

Why are there no directors for UK results? Companies House requires a separate API call per company to retrieve officers. To keep costs low the search results don't include officers — use the source_url to access the full profile.