# Impressum Extractor: DACH Legal Notice, HRB & VAT ID (`cprussin/impressum-extractor`) Actor

Extract company data from the Impressum / legal notice of German, Austrian, Swiss and French websites: legal name and form, address, phone, register court, HRB/FN/CHE/RCS number and VAT ID. Company fields only, no personal names. $3 per 1,000 imprints with register or VAT.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/cprussin/impressum-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Connor Prussin](https://apify.com/cprussin) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 imprint extracteds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Impressum Extractor: DACH Legal Notice, HRB & VAT ID

**Impressum Extractor** turns a list of company websites into clean company records from their **Impressum** (legal notice), as JSON, CSV or Excel. German, Austrian and Swiss websites must publish one (§ 5 DDG, § 5 ECG, Art. 3 UWG), and French sites publish *mentions légales*. The actor finds that page and reads the company fields:

- ✅ **Legal company name and legal form**: GmbH, AG, UG (haftungsbeschränkt), GmbH & Co. KG, KG, OHG, e.K., SE, Austrian FN-registered companies, Swiss AG/GmbH/Sàrl, French SAS/SARL/SA, ...
- ✅ **Register court and number**: Amtsgericht + HRB/HRA (DE), Firmenbuch FN + Handelsgericht (AT), UID CHE-xxx.xxx.xxx + Handelsregisteramt (CH), RCS / SIREN (FR).
- ✅ **VAT ID**: USt-IdNr. (DE…), UID (ATU…), MWST (CHE… MWST), TVA (FR…) and other EU VAT numbers.
- ✅ **Address and contact**: street, postal code, city, company phone, fax and the generic contact mailbox (info@, kontakt@, office@, ...).
- ✅ **Country guess** (ISO code) from VAT ID, register, court, address, phone prefix and TLD.
- ✅ **Finds the page for you**: Impressum links in the home page footer, then common paths such as `/impressum`, `/imprint`, `/legal-notice`, `/mentions-legales`, `/kontakt/impressum`.
- ✅ **Fair billing**: one row per domain, and you pay only for rows with a register number or VAT ID. Not found, blocked or incomplete rows are free.
- ✅ Light and polite: plain HTTP (no browser, no proxy, no search engine), a few requests per domain, and it respects robots.txt.

**Company data only.** The actor never outputs managing directors, owners, responsible persons (V.i.S.d.P.), personal names or personal email addresses. See [Lawful use](#lawful-use).

### Start in one minute

Click **Start** with the prefilled input:

```json
{
  "domains": ["heise.de"]
}
```

You get: one row for heise.de with `companyName` (Heise Medien GmbH & Co. KG), `legalForm`, `address`, `registerCourt` (Amtsgericht Hannover), `registerNumber` (HRB 60405), `vatId`, `email` and the `sourceUrl` of the Impressum.

**Cost:** $0.003: 1 imprint × $0.003, plus the $0.00005 actor-start fee.

### Use with an AI assistant

Connect the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com) to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (`https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cprussin/impressum-extractor` loads only this actor), then paste:

```text
Use the Apify actor cprussin/impressum-extractor on these websites: heise.de, hetzner.com, jimdo.com. List each company's legal name, legal form, register court, register number and VAT ID.
```

### Recipes

#### Enrich a list of German company domains

```json
{
  "domains": ["heise.de", "hetzner.com", "jimdo.com", "check24.de", "otto.de"]
}
```

#### Austria, Switzerland and France in one run

Austrian FN numbers, Swiss UID/MWST numbers and French RCS/TVA numbers are recognized next to German ones.

```json
{
  "domains": ["a1.net", "derstandard.at", "galaxus.ch", "doctolib.fr"]
}
```

#### Paste the Impressum URL directly

When you already know the page, give its URL: it is tried first.

```json
{
  "domains": ["https://www.heise.de/impressum.html"]
}
```

#### Large lists, faster

Process 10,000 domains per run, up to 20 in parallel.

```json
{
  "domains": ["heise.de", "otto.de", "bosch.de"],
  "maxConcurrency": 20
}
```

### Who uses Impressum data?

- **B2B sales and CRM teams**: add legal names, register numbers and VAT IDs to account lists, and deduplicate companies across brands and domains.
- **KYC, onboarding and compliance**: pre-fill supplier and customer records, then verify them in the official register.
- **Invoicing and procurement**: get the correct legal entity and VAT ID for a vendor's website.
- **Market research**: count legal forms, register courts or countries across a list of websites.
- **AI agents**: look up who legally runs a website through the Apify API or MCP server.

### How does the Impressum extractor work?

1. Add company domains or URLs, one per line.
2. For each domain the actor reads `robots.txt`, loads the home page and follows its Impressum / legal-notice links (text such as *Impressum*, *Imprint*, *Legal notice*, *Mentions légales*, *Aviso legal*).
3. If none works, it tries common paths (`/impressum`, `/imprint`, `/legal-notice`, `/mentions-legales`, `/kontakt/impressum`, ...).
4. It parses the page's HTML and keeps the company fields. It stops at the first page with a register number or VAT ID, so most domains take 3–4 requests.

### How do I choose which domains to process?

| Field            | Description                                                        | Example                   |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------- |
| `domains`        | Company domains or URLs, one per line (up to 10,000; deduplicated) | `["heise.de", "otto.de"]` |
| `maxConcurrency` | Domains processed in parallel, 1–20 (default 5)                    | `10`                      |

- `example.de`, `www.example.de`, `https://example.de/` and `https://www.example.de/impressum` all work. One row per domain.
- Lines that are not domains are returned as `invalidInput` rows (free) instead of failing the run.

### What data do you get for each domain?

```json
{
  "input": "heise.de",
  "domain": "heise.de",
  "status": "found",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.heise.de/impressum.html",
  "companyName": "Heise Medien GmbH & Co. KG",
  "legalForm": "GmbH & Co. KG",
  "street": "Karl-Wiechert-Allee 10",
  "postalCode": "30625",
  "city": "Hannover",
  "address": "Karl-Wiechert-Allee 10, 30625 Hannover",
  "phone": null,
  "fax": null,
  "email": "webmaster@heise.de",
  "registerCourt": "Amtsgericht Hannover",
  "registerType": "HRB",
  "registerNumber": "HRB 60405",
  "vatId": "DE813501887",
  "countryGuess": "DE",
  "pagesFetched": 4,
  "error": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-19T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

- `status`: `found` (Impressum page found), `notFound`, `blocked` (403/429 or a bot challenge), `robotsDisallowed`, `unreachable` (DNS, TLS or connection error), `invalidInput` or `error`.
- `registerNumber` includes its prefix: `HRB 60405`, `FN 482913 k`, `CHE-317.482.905`, `RCS Lyon 842 315 907`. `registerType` is the prefix alone.
- `vatId` has no spaces (`DE813501887`, `ATU71839245`, `FR41842315907`); Swiss numbers keep their official format (`CHE-317.482.905 MWST`).
- `email` is only a role mailbox (info@, kontakt@, office@, service@, ...) or brand@brand. Personal-looking addresses are dropped.
- `countryGuess` is a best guess; fields that aren't on the page are `null`.

### How much does it cost to extract Impressum data?

Pay-per-event, only for useful rows:

| Event             | Price      | When                                               |
| ----------------- | ---------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| Imprint extracted | **$0.003** | A row with a register number or a VAT ID (or both) |

That's **$3 per 1,000 imprints**. Rows without a register number or VAT ID (not found, blocked, sole traders without either) are free. If you set a **maximum cost per run**, the actor stops cleanly when it reaches it.

### Tips

- **Clean your list first**: one domain per company. Brand sites often share one Impressum; the parent company's domain gives the best results.
- **Check `status`**: `blocked` and `unreachable` rows are free; retry them later or look them up by hand.
- **Verify before you rely on it**: an Impressum is self-reported. For contracts or KYC, confirm the register number at handelsregister.de, firmenbuch.at, zefix.ch or annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr, and the VAT ID with the EU VIES service.

### Lawful use

The Impressum is a legally required public disclosure, but how you use the data is your responsibility:

- **Company data only, by design.** The actor does not output names of managing directors, owners, shareholders or responsible persons, and drops personal email addresses, to reduce GDPR exposure. Sole traders (e.K., Einzelunternehmen) may still carry the owner's name in the company name, as registered.
- **No cold email.** German law (§ 7 UWG) and similar rules in Austria, Switzerland and France restrict unsolicited advertising by email, phone and fax, also to businesses. Don't use the contact fields for cold outreach without a legal basis.
- **GDPR applies** to any personal data you combine with these records. Have a lawful basis, keep records minimal, and honor objection and deletion requests.
- No email verification, no search engines and no login: the actor reads only the public pages the website itself links to, and respects robots.txt.

### Impressum extractor FAQ

**Which countries work?** Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France are tuned; Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain work for VAT IDs and many legal forms.

**Why no managing directors?** On purpose. Director names are personal data under the GDPR; this actor keeps to company-level fields.

**Why was a site `notFound`?** Some sites render the Impressum only with JavaScript, put it in a PDF or an image, or host it on another domain. The actor uses plain HTTP and the site's own links only.

**Why `blocked`?** A few large sites answer automated requests with 403 or a bot challenge. The actor doesn't use proxies or browsers to get around that; these rows are free.

**Does it respect robots.txt?** Yes. Pages disallowed for all user agents are skipped (`robotsDisallowed`), and an unreachable robots.txt (5xx) counts as "disallow all", as RFC 9309 says.

**Can I use it through the API or with AI agents?** Yes. Call it through the Apify API, the Apify MCP server or any Apify integration.

**Disclaimer:** This actor is not affiliated with any of the websites it reads. Company names and trademarks belong to their owners. You are responsible for complying with applicable laws (including the GDPR and UWG) and the websites' terms when using the data.

### Related actors

- [New Business Registrations](https://apify.com/cprussin/new-business-registrations?fpr=to54nm): Newly registered LLCs and corporations from official state registries.
- [SEC Form D Scraper](https://apify.com/cprussin/sec-form-d-funding?fpr=to54nm): New startup funding rounds and private placements from SEC EDGAR Form D filings.
- [Website Screenshot API](https://apify.com/cprussin/website-screenshot?fpr=to54nm): Full-page or viewport screenshots and PDFs of any URL.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Company websites, one per line: a domain (<code>example.de</code>), a URL (<code>https://www.example.at</code>) or the Impressum URL itself. One output row per domain. Only rows with a register number or VAT ID are billed.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Domains processed in parallel. Each domain is fetched one page at a time (robots.txt, home page, Impressum).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "heise.de"
  ],
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "domains": [
        "heise.de"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("cprussin/impressum-extractor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "domains": ["heise.de"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("cprussin/impressum-extractor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "domains": [
    "heise.de"
  ]
}' |
apify call cprussin/impressum-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,cprussin/impressum-extractor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/IyPZwQpriNHRAG5FZ/builds/yswioZRCyVEvCy8qS/openapi.json