🔎 EU VAT Validator — VIES per-answer check

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.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run bi94IoJhl4WrlKZ4g on build 0.1.7 (2026-09-17), 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	2026-09-17T17:16:13.027Z
DE811128135	DE	811128135	---	---	2026-09-17T17:16:14.510Z
LU26375245	LU	26375245	AMAZON EUROPE CORE S.A R.L.	38, AVENUE JOHN F. KENNEDY L-1855 LUXEMBOURG	2026-09-17T17:16:15.565Z

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. 2026-09-17T17:16:13.027Z
• 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.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

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

A bounded run for checking the field shape before scheduling.

3. A full-size run

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

The same input run on a schedule; each run is billed only for what it delivers.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run bi94IoJhl4WrlKZ4g, 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": "2026-09-17T17:16:13.027Z",
  "request_identifier": "",
  "unavailable_reason": null
}

🔧 How it works

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.

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	$0.04	$0.04	$0.03

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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