01
A private global identifier
DUNS is not a government registration number. A Dutch KvK number, VAT ID, LEI, EORI and U.S. EIN each come from different systems and serve different legal or administrative jobs.
The digits do not encode a country or company type. Verification depends on the D&B record linked to them: legal name, status and physical location.
02
One group can have several records
Separate legal entities and facilities can each have their own number. Apple and Google need the entity behind the platform account. FDA may need the identifier for a specific establishment rather than corporate headquarters.
DUNS is no longer the identifier for SAM.gov. The U.S. federal government switched to the SAM-generated Unique Entity ID on 4 April 2022.