How to screen a company against the EU consolidated sanctions list

Updated 2026-11-12

Why the EU list is a separate check

A US screen (OFAC SDN, the CSL) does not replace a European one. If you pay a supplier, a subcontractor or a partner based in the European Union, or if you sell to one, you also need to check the EU consolidated financial sanctions list. The EU applies its own restrictive measures, adopted by the Council, and they are not always identical to the US or UK lists.

Two things to keep in mind before you start:

The check is about the entity and its owners or controllers, not only the name typed on the invoice. A company can be listed under a former name, a trade name or a transliterated spelling.
A "no match" result is only as good as the data you searched. Re-run the check on the day you pay, not once a year.

The free manual method

Find the official dataset. The European Commission publishes the consolidated list of persons, groups and entities subject to EU financial sanctions. It is listed on the European Data Portal: https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/consolidated-list-of-persons-groups-and-entities-subject-to-eu-financial-sanctions
Check the regime and the scope. The EU Sanctions Map (https://www.sanctionsmap.eu/) explains which measures apply to which country and sector. Read it before you conclude anything, because a listing does not always mean a total ban on all dealings.
Download or search the list. The list is available in several formats. For a small check, a keyword search in the published list is enough. For a batch, download the file and match on normalized names.
Search every variant. Try the legal name, the trade name, the former name, the name in the local language and the spelling with accents removed. Write down the date and the source you used.
Check the owners. For a company, a listed person who controls it is also a problem. Look at the ownership information published by the company register of its country when it is available.
Keep a record. Save the date, the list version, the search terms and the result. If you have to justify a payment later, that record is what you will show.

What a match means

No match: nothing found in this list on this date. It does not prove the company is clean in other lists or in other countries.
Possible match: check the date of birth, the address, the registration number and the country. Do not decide on the name alone.
Confirmed match: stop the payment and get advice from your compliance or legal team. Do not contact the company to "test" it.

Do not publicly state that a real company is sanctioned unless the official list says so and you have checked it carefully.

The fast way: one call per company, or a batch

Doing steps 1 to 6 for 3 vendors takes a while. Doing it for 300 vendors every quarter is a project. Tolca's verify-business runs the check in one call and returns a verdict: ok, review, blocking or not_found.

It screens against:

the US lists (CSL, including the OFAC SDN list),
the UK Sanctions List,
the EU consolidated list, which is the one this guide is about,
the Canadian list (LMES), including the UN sanctions applied by the UK and the EU.

It also checks company registers: Companies House (UK), federal corporations (Canada), and GLEIF for LEI codes. It does not hold data on individuals.

Price: 0.05 USD per company, paid by card on the Apify Store (https://apify.com/tolca/business-verification) in batches, or per call for an AI agent over x402 (USDC on Base).

For an agent, the endpoint is:

POST https://tolca.tonbot.ca/v1/verify-business

and the same tool is available through MCP at https://tolca.tonbot.ca/mcp/public.

A simple workflow for a vendor onboarding

Collect the legal name, the country and the registration number from the vendor's documents.
Run verify-business on the vendor.
If the verdict is ok, keep the record and proceed.
If it is review, check the detail manually against the official list using the steps above.
If it is blocking, stop and escalate to your compliance contact.
Re-run the check before each large payment, and at least once a quarter for active vendors.

Limits to know

The check depends on the data sources. It is a screening aid, not a legal opinion.
Name matching can produce false positives, especially with common names.
Individuals are not screened by this product. Use the official lists directly for people.

If you have a specific question about a sanctions regime, ask a qualified adviser. This guide explains the method; it does not replace legal advice.

Try it: Business Verification on the Apify Store ($0.05 per company, card payment) · for AI agents: POST https://tolca.tonbot.ca/v1/verify-business (x402, USDC on Base) · free in Claude or ChatGPT through MCP: https://tolca.tonbot.ca/mcp/public