VATrelay → VIES errors

`MS_UNAVAILABLE`

What it means

The member state's system is down or in a maintenance window. Member states take their systems offline without notifying third parties in advance.

Whose fault is it

Not your code.

What to do

There is no ETA to poll for. Serve your last known answer and mark it stale.

Live VIES availability, measured

Member state	Now	24 h	Last error
FR	down	33.0%	MS_MAX_CONCURRENT_REQ
DE	up	79.0%	—
BE	up	97.0%	—
ES	up	100.0%	—
IT	up	100.0%	—
NL	up	100.0%	—
PL	up	100.0%	—
PT	up	100.0%	—

We query each member state's real 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 data is free and needs no account: GET /v1/uptime.

Stop handling this yourself

VATrelay absorbs every error on this page. When VIES is silent we serve the last known answer, flagged stale with its original timestamp, or the offline structural verdict — always HTTP 200, always a usable body. We never invent a validity verdict.