Nuxt 3 middleware redirect based on IP country code not working when deployed to Netlify

I'm trying to forward traffic to a specific slug based on the user's country code after an IP address lookup.

It works perfectly locally but it's not working when I deploy to Netlify.

export default defineNuxtRouteMiddleware(async (to, from) => {
  const targetPathDe = '/de-de'
  const targetPathEn = '/de-en'

  // Prevent middleware from redirecting if already on the target path
  if (to.path === targetPathDe || to.path === targetPathEn) {
    return
  }

  const ipApiUrl = 'http://ip-api.com/json/?fields=countryCode'

  try {
    // Use native fetch to get IP data
    const response = await fetch(ipApiUrl)
    const ipData = await response.json()

    // Check the country code from IP data
    if (ipData.countryCode === 'DE') {
      return navigateTo(targetPathDe)
    } else {
      return navigateTo(targetPathEn)
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error fetching IP data:', error)
    return navigateTo(targetPathEn)
  }
})

Locally, I'm running npm run dev and Netlify is npm run build.

OP considered using the geolocation edge function for now.
It is easier to implement and probably more precise too!