# German Impressum Scraper: Company Data & VAT ID (`digital_influx/german-impressum`) Actor

Read the Impressum (legal notice) of German, Austrian and Swiss websites: company name, legal form, address, managing directors, commercial register (HRB) with court, VAT ID with check digit, phone and email.

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

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 impressum reads

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

## German Impressum Scraper: Company Data & VAT ID

**Give it a list of German, Austrian or Swiss company websites and get the legal data of each one from its Impressum** (the legal notice every commercial website in these countries must publish):

- company name and legal form (GmbH, AG, GmbH & Co. KG, UG, e.K., m.b.H. ...);
- street, postal code, city and country;
- managing directors (Geschäftsführer, Vorstand, Inhaber) and the chair of the supervisory board;
- commercial register entry (HRA, HRB, Austrian FN) with its register court;
- VAT ID (USt-IdNr., UID), with the check digit of German VAT IDs verified;
- phone, fax and email.

No account, no API key, no proxies, no search engine: the Actor visits each website you give it, finds the Impressum link on the homepage and reads that page.

### Who uses it

- **B2B sales and lead lists:** turn a list of domains into the legal company name, managing directors and a phone number.
- **Data enrichment and CRM cleanup:** add register numbers and VAT IDs to accounts, find the legal entity behind a brand.
- **KYC, supplier checks and invoicing:** the VAT ID and register entry a company publishes itself.
- **Market research:** legal forms and locations of the companies in a niche.

### What you get

One row per website:

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `domain`, `impressumUrl` | `tchibo.de`, https://www.tchibo.de/c/service-impressum |
| `companyName`, `legalForm` | Tchibo GmbH, GmbH |
| `street`, `postalCode`, `city`, `country` | Überseering 18, 22297, Hamburg, DE |
| `managingDirectors` | \["Erik Hofstädter", "Felix Albrecht", "Hamid Dastmalchian"] |
| `supervisoryBoardChair` | Michael Herz |
| `registerType`, `registerNumber`, `registerCourt` | HRB, 43618, Hamburg |
| `vatId`, `vatIdValid` | DE811164447, `true` (check digit of German VAT IDs; `null` for others) |
| `phone`, `fax`, `email` | +49 (0) 40 63 87 - 0, service@tchibo.de |
| `responsibleForContent` | The person responsible for the content (§ 18 MStV), where named |
| `otherRegisterEntries` | Register entries of other companies on the same page (group companies, general partner) |
| `status`, `error` | `ok`, or why there is no data: `no_data`, `no_impressum`, `blocked`, `blocked_by_robots`, `http_error`, `unreachable`, `invalid`, `duplicate` |
| `pagesVisited`, `scrapedAt` | The pages read and when |

The **OUTPUT** record has the status of every website and the totals.

### Input

```json
{
  "websites": ["tchibo.de", "hetzner.com", "faber-castell.de", "strato.de", "netcup.de"]
}
```

A longer list, ten websites at a time:

```json
{
  "websites": ["https://www.otto.de", "zalando.de", "derstandard.at", "sevdesk.de"],
  "maxConcurrency": 10
}
```

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `websites` | Domains or full URLs, one per line. Duplicates are read once. |
| `maxConcurrency` | Websites read in parallel (5 by default). Each website gets one request at a time. |

### How much it costs

Pay per event: **only for websites whose Impressum gave legal data** (a company with an address, a register entry or a VAT ID). Websites that block robots, have no Impressum, or build it with JavaScript are saved with their status for free. Measured on 2026-10-02: 7 of 10 well-known sites read in about 20 seconds; on 35 notices of German, Austrian and Swiss companies, the parser read the company and register data of all 31 that have it in their HTML.

### Use it from AI agents (MCP)

Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and any other MCP client can run this Actor as a tool: add `https://mcp.apify.com?tools=digital_influx/german-impressum` as a remote MCP server and sign in with your Apify account. It is also one of the tools of Company Research MCP (`digital_influx/company-research-mcp`), by the same author, made for agents.

### Good to know

- **Where the data comes from.** German law requires the notice on every commercial website (§ 5 DDG, until May 2024 § 5 TMG), and so do Austria (§ 5 ECG, § 25 MedienG) and Switzerland (Art. 3 UWG). The Actor reads what each company publishes about itself; it does not look anything up in the official registers.
- **The Impressum link** is found by its text (Impressum, Imprint, Legal notice...) on the homepage. When the homepage links none, the Actor tries `/impressum` and `/imprint`. A notice on another domain of the group is followed when the link says "Impressum".
- **robots.txt is respected** for every host, with the user agent `german-impressum`. A site that answers 403 to robots is reported as `blocked` and not retried with tricks. Some large retailers block all robots.
- **Pages built with JavaScript** (the text is not in the HTML) give `no_data`: the Actor reads HTML only and does not run a browser.
- **Pages with several companies** (group companies, a general partner of a GmbH & Co. KG): the row has the company of the first register entry that is not the general partner, and `otherRegisterEntries` counts the others.
- **Phones and emails are as written** in the notice. Emails hidden by Cloudflare or written as "info(at)firma.de" are decoded.
- **Personal data:** managing directors' names are published by law, but they are personal data under the GDPR. Use them for a legitimate purpose and follow the rules on direct marketing in your country (in Germany, § 7 UWG for calls and emails).

### Source

The Impressum page of each website, read on the run date. The Actor is not affiliated with the companies whose data it reads.

# Actor input Schema

## `websites` (type: `array`):

Company websites, one per line: a domain like tchibo.de or a full URL. The Actor finds the Impressum link on the homepage.

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

How many websites are read in parallel. Each website gets one request at a time.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "websites": [
    "tchibo.de",
    "hetzner.com",
    "faber-castell.de",
    "strato.de",
    "netcup.de"
  ],
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `summary` (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 = {
    "websites": [
        "tchibo.de",
        "hetzner.com",
        "faber-castell.de",
        "strato.de",
        "netcup.de"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("digital_influx/german-impressum").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 = { "websites": [
        "tchibo.de",
        "hetzner.com",
        "faber-castell.de",
        "strato.de",
        "netcup.de",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("digital_influx/german-impressum").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 '{
  "websites": [
    "tchibo.de",
    "hetzner.com",
    "faber-castell.de",
    "strato.de",
    "netcup.de"
  ]
}' |
apify call digital_influx/german-impressum --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/6Qvq9OfY3NnPAp6as/builds/aQq1L5CYH6ObIDK6e/openapi.json