ImportRules

Verify your counterparty

Before you pay a new supplier or take on a new customer: is the VAT number real (VIES), is the name on a sanctions list; including on a near spelling; and does the company exist at all. The official tools do one at a time; this page does them together and stamps the result with the date. Nothing is stored; the checks run when you click.

Verification says the registration exists and the name is clean on these lists today. It does not say the company is solvent, honest, or who stands behind it; that is the part no database answers.

The checks

Fill in what you have; name, VAT, or both; and press Verify.

EORI: we have not found a machine interface for the EU’s EORI validation that answers from outside the Commission’s own page — the documented SOAP endpoint returned a filter block from two separate networks when we tried it on 5 September 2026. So check an EORI on the official page: EU EORI validation. An EORI says a trader is registered for customs; it says nothing about sanctions or VAT.

What each check really tells you

VAT valid in VIES

The number is registered and active for intra-EU trade today, and when the member state publishes it, the registered name and city come back. An invalid number with an invoice attached is the classic sign of a missing-trader fraud; or of a typo; check the spelling first.
Source: VIES, European Commission VAT Information Exchange System. Checked: 3 September 2026.

"Invalid" does not always mean invalid

VIES answers for one member state at a time, and when that country's system is down it cannot answer at all. The service returns MS_UNAVAILABLE (301), SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE (300) or TIMEOUT (302); none of which means the number is wrong. Tools that fold those into "invalid" reject sound counterparties during routine maintenance.
Source: VIES checkVat service status codes: 201 INVALID_INPUT, 300 SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE, 301 MS_UNAVAILABLE, 302 TIMEOUT. Checked: 3 September 2026.

Name not on the sanctions lists

The name as spelled did not appear in the lists searched, covering 223,754 recorded name variants, on the date shown. Read the sanctions page for what that does and does not mean; transliteration, ownership above 50%, and list changes are the three gaps.
Source: every sanctions list the free check searches, daily refreshed; the live coverage and the count above are on /api/lijststand. Checked: 26 September 2026.