EU VIES VAT Number Checker

Validate EU VAT identification numbers against the official European Commission VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) REST API. Returns structured JSON with validity, registered trader name and address when the member state provides them, country code, request date and raw VIES fields.

No API key. Public EU service used by finance, compliance and e-commerce teams across Europe.

Official UI: VIES VAT validation
REST endpoint used: POST https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api/check-vat-number

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What it does

1. Accepts a list of VAT numbers (IE6388047V, DE123456789, …) and/or structured { countryCode, vatNumber } pairs.
2. Calls the official VIES JSON REST API for each number (with optional throttle + retries on member-state concurrency limits).
3. Writes one Dataset row per check: valid, name, address, countryCode, vatNumber, requestDate, plus raw VIES fields.

Notes

• Greece uses country code EL in VIES (not GR). The Actor remaps GR → EL.
• Name/address are returned only when the member state chooses to disclose them; empty/--- means “not provided”, not “invalid”.
• VIES member-state backends can return MS_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQ under load — the Actor retries with backoff and respects requestDelayMs.

Who it's for

• Finance / tax teams validating EU B2B customer VAT IDs
• E-commerce and SaaS billing that need reverse-charge eligibility checks
• Compliance and KYC pipelines enriching company records with VIES data
• Agents and ETL jobs that need official VIES results as JSON (not scraped HTML)

Input summary

Field	Required	Description
vatNumbers	no*	List of VAT IDs with or without country prefix, e.g. IE6388047V
checks	no*	Array of { "countryCode": "IE", "vatNumber": "6388047V" }
maxItems	no	Hard Dataset cap (default 50, max 5000)
requestDelayMs	no	Delay between VIES calls in ms (default 250)

*Provide at least one of vatNumbers or checks.

Output fields

One Dataset row per VAT:

countryCode, vatNumber, vatFull, valid, name, address, requestDate, requestIdentifier, optional trader-match fields, error (null on success), sourceUrl, viesEndpoint, raw, scrapedAt.

Pricing

Pay-per-event suggested for the Store:

• Actor start (apify-actor-start): about $0.04 / run
• Dataset item (apify-default-dataset-item): about $0.003 / VAT result

Use maxItems as the spend cap. See Store pricing panel once published.

Quick start (Apify Console)

1. Open the Actor → Start.
2. Paste VAT numbers (e.g. IE6388047V) or structured checks.
3. Set maxItems / requestDelayMs if needed.
4. Run → export Dataset JSON/CSV.

{
  "vatNumbers": ["IE6388047V", "DE111111125"],
  "checks": [
    { "countryCode": "FR", "vatNumber": "40303265045" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "requestDelayMs": 250
}

Local smoke

npm run local
# or: APIFY_LOCAL=1 node src/main.js

Writes storage/datasets/default/000000001.json and storage/key_value_stores/default/OUTPUT.json.

Legal / data source

Data comes from the official European Commission VIES public REST API (ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies). Results reflect member-state replies at query time and are not a legal opinion or tax advice. Respect fair-use request rates; do not overwhelm VIES or individual member-state backends. See the Commission VIES pages for service terms and availability (/rest-api/check-status).

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Português (resumo)

Valida números de IVA da UE pelo serviço oficial VIES da Comissão Europeia (REST JSON). Devolve validade, nome/endereço quando o Estado-membro informa, país e campos brutos. Sem API key. Ideal para compliance, faturamento B2B e enriquecimento de cadastros. Pay-per-event sugerido: ~US$0,04 por execução + ~US$0,003 por resultado. Fonte legal = VIES oficial da UE.