VIES Guarantee for Marketplace Sellers: What Non-EU E-Commerce Companies Need to Know

You sell on Amazon, eBay or Shopify, your products are doing well in Europe, and Italy is the next step. At some point in your planning, a requirement appears that most non-EU sellers have never heard of: the VIES guarantee. This guide explains when online sellers come into contact with it and how to keep it from slowing down your launch.

When does an online seller need an Italian VAT position?

Non-EU e-commerce companies typically encounter the Italian VAT system in three scenarios: storing goods in Italian or EU warehouses to speed up delivery (for example through marketplace fulfilment programmes); selling to European business customers (B2B); or importing goods into Italy for local distribution. In several of these configurations the company needs an Italian VAT number — usually obtained through a fiscal representative — and, to carry out intra-EU transactions, inclusion in VIES (the EU’s VAT Information Exchange System). Which registrations your specific logistics model requires is a question for your fiscal representative or tax advisor; what follows concerns the step that most often takes non-EU sellers by surprise.

The step most sellers discover late: the guarantee

Since 2025, operators based outside the EU that apply for VIES registration in Italy must provide a guarantee in favour of the Italian Revenue Agency (Legislative Decree 13/2024; MEF Decree of 4 December 2024; Revenue Agency Provision no. 178713/2025). The amount is set by law at €50,000, and decision no. 4986/2026 of the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio confirmed the framework. Many sellers find out about the requirement only when their VIES application stalls — with stock already booked into a warehouse and campaigns already scheduled. See also: who is required to provide the VIES guarantee and the TAR Lazio decision explained.

What a missing VIES registration means in practice

Without VIES registration a company cannot carry out intra-community transactions. In day-to-day e-commerce terms: B2B customers cannot treat your invoices as intra-EU supplies, cross-border flows between EU warehouses become problematic, and marketplaces and payment providers — which increasingly cross-check sellers’ VAT data — may flag or restrict the account. A stalled application is therefore not a paperwork detail: it can hold up the entire commercial launch.

Planning the setup: fiscal representative, VAT number, guarantee, VIES

The sequence is linear: appoint an Italian fiscal representative, obtain the Italian VAT number, prepare the guarantee, apply for VIES registration. Parts of it can run in parallel — see how to set up the fiscal representative and the VIES guarantee at the same time. The guarantee itself is an insurance surety policy (polizza fideiussoria assicurativa) issued in favour of the Revenue Agency. The whole file — corporate documents, identity checks on beneficial owners under anti-money-laundering rules, signature — can be completed remotely: see how to sign an insurance guarantee from abroad without an Italian tax code.

Key points for marketplace sellers

• Build the guarantee into your launch timeline from the start — not after the VIES application is filed.
• Everything can be done remotely: no trip to Italy is needed at any stage of the procedure.
• Keep your corporate documents ready (registry extract, articles of association, IDs of the legal representative and beneficial owners): document preparation is usually the longest part of the file.

For the complete picture of the procedure, see VIES registration for non-EU companies and the step-by-step guide to VIES registration with the Italian Revenue Agency.

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