VIES goes down.
Your checkout shouldn't.

The problem, measured live

We query each member state's real VIES backend every 10 minutes with a live VAT number. The Commission's own status endpoint reports Available for member states that are in fact refusing most requests — only a real call tells the truth. This table is free and needs no account.

Try it — no signup

→ response appears here

Hit a VIES error in production? Every VIES error code explained — what it means, whose fault it is, and how to stop it breaking your checkout.

What you actually get

• It never fails. VIES unreachable → we serve the last known answer, flagged stale with its original timestamp. No cache → the offline structural verdict. Always HTTP 200, always a usable body.
• Company data VIES withholds. VIES returns "---" instead of a company name for DE and ES, and never tells you whether a business is still trading. We add name, address, legal status, activity code and headcount from national registries (FR · CZ · FI · RO · PL today).
• Bad input never leaves your server. Format and checksum are verified locally for all 27 member states, so malformed numbers return instantly and don't burn a VIES round trip. A failing checksum never blocks the lookup — VIES stays the authority.
• Audit proof. Pass ?requester= your own VAT number and we return the VIES requestIdentifier — the consultation proof to keep for a reverse-charge audit.
• Batch. Up to 50 numbers per call for cleaning an existing customer table.

API

curl -H "X-API-Key: $KEY" \
  "https://vat.ouvamataxe.fr/v1/check/FR59542051180"

loading sample response…

GET /v1/check/{vat} — ?enrich=0 skip registry · ?fresh=1 bypass cache · ?requester=FR… audit proof
POST /v1/batch {"vat_numbers":[…]} · GET /v1/uptime · GET /v1/status — both free, no key

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