🔎 EU VAT Validation — Official VIES VAT Check per Number

EU VAT validation with proof: each number gets an official VIES VAT check, returning whether it is registered, the trader name and address VIES gives, and the request date and identifier.

Validate EU VAT identifiers against the official European Commission VIES service (ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies). Give it a list of VAT numbers; get back, for each, whether the number is registered, the trader name and address VIES returns, and the official request date and identifier — the evidence a finance or onboarding team needs to prove a counterparty's VAT status.

Output is one vat_answer row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one completed vat answer (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.05 per completed vat answer). Source: ec.europa.eu.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

Who buys this

• Finance and accounts-payable teams doing VAT validation on suppliers before paying invoices.
• Onboarding and KYB teams that need a dated VIES VAT check on file for each counterparty.
• E-commerce and marketplace operators validating buyer VAT numbers for reverse-charge sales.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run zqVDYXHjR6nzB4h0T on build 0.1.13 (2026-09-28), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

input	country_code	vat_number	name	address	request_date
IE6388047V	IE	6388047V	GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED	3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4	2026-09-28T04:22:09.732Z
DE811128135	DE	811128135	---	---	2026-09-28T04:22:10.572Z
LU26375245	LU	26375245	AMAZON EUROPE CORE S.A R.L.	38, AVENUE JOHN F. KENNEDY L-1855 LUXEMBOURG	2026-09-28T04:22:14.381Z

The run finished with the status message: NORMAL: 3 answered (0 unavailable, 0 unparseable) of 3 | vat-answer billable=3 | vat-answer charged=3

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• input (string/null) — e.g. IE6388047V
• country_code (string/null) — e.g. IE
• vat_number (string/null) — e.g. 6388047V
• source (string/null) — e.g. https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api/check-vat-number
• record_type (string) — e.g. vat_answer
• answer (string/null) — e.g. valid
• valid (boolean/null) — e.g. True
• name (string/null) — e.g. GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED
• address (string/null) — e.g. 3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4
• request_date (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-28T04:22:09.732Z
• request_identifier (string/null) — null in every sample row
• unavailable_reason (string/null) — null in every sample row

✅ What you get

• input (string/null) — e.g. IE6388047V
• country_code (string/null) — e.g. IE
• vat_number (string/null) — e.g. 6388047V
• source (string/null) — e.g. https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api/check-vat-number
• record_type (string) — e.g. vat_answer
• answer (string/null) — e.g. valid
• valid (boolean/null) — e.g. True
• name (string/null) — e.g. GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED
• address (string/null) — e.g. 3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4
• request_date (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-18T00:49:20.423Z
• request_identifier (string/null) — null in every sample row
• unavailable_reason (string/null) — null in every sample row

✅ What you get

• input (string/null) — e.g. IE6388047V
• country_code (string/null) — e.g. IE
• vat_number (string/null) — e.g. 6388047V
• source (string/null) — e.g. https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api/check-vat-number
• record_type (string) — e.g. vat_answer
• answer (string/null) — e.g. valid
• valid (boolean/null) — e.g. True
• name (string/null) — e.g. GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED
• address (string/null) — e.g. 3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4
• request_date (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-17T17:16:13.027Z
• request_identifier (string/null) — null in every sample row
• unavailable_reason (string/null) — null in every sample row

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "vatNumbers": [
    "IE6388047V",
    "DE811128135",
    "LU26375245"
  ]
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 3 × $0.05 vat-answer = $0.17 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

This actor takes no size cap or filter beyond the input above, so the Store example is the one input to run; put it on a schedule to keep the data current.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run zqVDYXHjR6nzB4h0T, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "input": "IE6388047V",
  "country_code": "IE",
  "vat_number": "6388047V",
  "source": "https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api/check-vat-number",
  "record_type": "vat_answer",
  "answer": "valid",
  "valid": true,
  "name": "GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED",
  "address": "3RD FLOOR, GORDON HOUSE, BARROW STREET, DUBLIN 4",
  "request_date": "2026-09-28T04:22:09.732Z",
  "request_identifier": "",
  "unavailable_reason": null
}

🔧 How it works

Source. The actor reads ec.europa.eu — endpoints: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/rest-api/check-vat-number. Public pages and feeds only; nothing behind a login.

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent. Pacing: RATE_PER_SEC=2.0.

Charging. Each completed vat answer is charged at the moment it is pushed (vat-answer); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

🔧 How it works

🔧 How it works

What is and is not an answer

A completed answer is one VIES resolved — whether the number is valid or invalid. Both are answers you came for and both are billed. A member-state outage (VIES reachable but that country's registry is temporarily down), an unparseable id, or a network error is not an answer and is not billed; those rows are returned in the "issues" view with a reason. If a run resolves no answer at all, it fails loud and charges nothing.

Source & pacing

Official EU VIES REST API, queried anonymously (no key). The actor paces itself at 2 requests/second with a contact User-Agent, and bounds a run to 200 numbers.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Completed VAT answer (vat-answer)	$0.05	$0.045	$0.04	$0.0335

Worked at the live Free-tier price:

• 3 completed vat answers: $0.02 start + 3 × $0.05 = $0.17
• 25 completed vat answers: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.05 = $1.27
• 100 completed vat answers: $0.02 start + 100 × $0.05 = $5.02

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: NORMAL: 3 answered (0 unavailable, 0 unparseable) of 3 | vat-answer billable=3 | vat-answer charged=3.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by ec.europa.eu. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (ec.europa.eu) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input; BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other company registry checks actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers ec.europa.eu. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source (RATE_PER_SEC=2.0); there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Fewer rows than expected → the source had fewer items in scope → widen the input.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.

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• 🏢 About NexGen Watch — NexGen Watch is a catalog of more than 300 public data actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

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