Magento 1.7: VAT ID check failed
Reason: The URL and parameters changed
File: /app/code/core/Mage/Customer/Helper/Data.php
Remove country code from VatNumber. Line 474: $requestParams['vatNumber'] = str_replace(array($countryCode,' ', '-'), array('','', ''), $vatNumber);
Change VAT_VALIDATION_WSDL_URL to 'http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl'