Why do some valid numbers come back without a company name or address?

That’s a data-policy decision by the individual country, not a vatnode limitation.

What VIES does

Some member states confirm that a number is valid through VIES but never return trader details. Germany and Spain are the best-known cases: Germany is restricted by national law, and Spain does not publish company data through the VIES interface. For these countries companyName and companyAddress are always null, even though valid is true.

What vatnode does about it

vatnode always tells you exactly what VIES returned – it doesn’t invent a name or address. For several countries it fills gaps from national registries where their policy allows it. The coverage reference lists which countries get that enrichment and which fields it adds (registration date, legal form, industry, registry identifier, tax ID).

What to do in your code

• Treat valid: true as the verdict. A null name or address is not a sign of an invalid number.
• Don’t make company name a required field when you validate for these countries.
• If you need the name for an invoice, take it from your customer’s own input and keep the validation result next to it.

The response fields are described in the validation endpoint reference.