EU VAT guide
VIES VAT checker
VIES is the European Commission service used to check whether an EU VAT number is currently valid for intra-EU transactions.
What this checker does
It sends the VAT country code and number to the VIES service and returns the current response from the national VAT database.
A valid response can include the registered name and address when the member state makes that data available.
What VIES does not guarantee
VIES is not a central company database. It queries national VAT databases at the time of the check.
The European Commission says national databases may be temporarily unavailable and that data accuracy is controlled by member states.