The question a brand outside the EU usually asks is "will the marketplaces let us in?" That is the easy part: Amazon, bol.com, Allegro and Kaufland all accept sellers from outside the European Union. The harder question — the one that decides whether the launch works — is what has to exist on the European side of the transaction before the first unit can legally be sold, and who is going to own it.
This guide sets out what the platforms ask for, what the obligation stack looks like, and the three honest routes in. It is not tax or legal advice; treat it as an operator's map of the terrain, and take the specifics to your own advisers.
What the marketplaces actually accept
Registration from outside the EU is possible everywhere, with more verification than a European seller faces and, in two cases, a separate door.
- Amazon accepts sellers established outside the EU on its European marketplaces. Registering is generally the least of the work; the identity and business verification simply runs longer.
- bol.com separates the two cases at registration. Sellers based in the Netherlands or Belgium register directly; other EU-established companies register as EU partners with the commercial-register entry and VAT number of their own country — and can only do so through a one-time invitation from bol; there is no open sign-up. Sellers established outside the EU are handled case by case rather than through open sign-up, and that assessment is slow.
- Allegro is the strictest and the most explicit about it. Sellers established outside the EEA, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK register through a heavier process — documents in English and in the company's native language, identity checks for payment KYC — and are limited to one account with a maximum of 500 offers. That is a published rule, not a soft guideline, and it caps what a non-EEA brand can build on the Polish market on its own.
- Kaufland requires a VAT ID for every storefront a seller opens, validated against the EU's own VIES system. Non-EU sellers face additional checks, and the European registrations below still apply in full.
So the account is obtainable. The account is also the cheapest thing on the list.
The obligation stack
These duties attach to selling into the EU, not to being European. They do not disappear because the seller is registered in Delaware, Dubai or Zug — someone has to carry each of them.
- VAT where the stock sits. Holding inventory in a European country generally creates a VAT registration obligation in that country, and it is per country. Since the marketplace deemed-supplier rules came in, platforms collect VAT on certain consumer sales by non-EU sellers, and reporting schemes such as OSS and IOSS simplify the filing — but neither removes a registration that holding stock has triggered. Depending on the country, a non-EU business may also need a fiscal representative, plus an EORI number and a clear importer-of-record arrangement for goods crossing the border.
- A responsible person for product safety. Under the General Product Safety Regulation, applicable since 13 December 2024, consumer products sold to EU buyers need an economic operator established in the EU whose details appear with the listing. No responsible person, no compliant listing.
- Extended producer responsibility. Packaging and, for some categories, electricals and batteries have to be registered before selling. Germany's LUCID registration under the packaging law is the clearest case: mandatory before listing, with no minimum volume — and marketplaces do block listings over it. France and others run their own schemes through eco-organisations. "We are too small for this yet" is not a category that exists.
- A European returns address. Buyers return, and a return that has to cross an ocean is not a return route — it is a refund policy in disguise, and platform metrics will read it as poor service.
- Local language content and service. Dutch on bol with French for Belgium, Polish on Allegro, German for Kaufland and Amazon.de. Machine-translated listings read as machine-translated, and buyer questions arrive in the buyer's language whatever the seller would prefer.
Nothing here is exotic. It is simply a European operation, and it exists whether or not the brand has built it.
Three routes, honestly compared
Sell to a distributor
The simplest thing a foreign brand can do: sell pallets to a European buyer and let the obligations become theirs, because they are the seller. It is the right route when volume is the goal and the brand's European future is negotiable. The cost is control — pricing, presentation, which marketplaces, which countries and the customer relationship all transfer with the goods, and brands that later want their European presence back often find their own products competing against them at prices they never chose.
Open your own accounts, with or without an agency
The right route when Europe is core strategy and you will resource it properly. You keep every login and every decision — and you carry every item in the stack above: the registrations, the responsible person, the EPR schemes, the returns, the service in five languages. An agency working inside your accounts changes who does the marketing work, not who carries the obligations or the liability. Choose this when Europe is worth hiring for, and be clear that it is a second company inside your company.
Sell through an operator on its own accounts
An operator already established in Europe sells your products through its own marketplace accounts, under its own marketplace and VAT registrations. Product-side duties — safety documentation, labelling and packaging registration — are checked in the plan before anything ships, and who registers what is settled there. This is the model we run at K6: your stock ships to Rotterdam and stays your property, we sell it on Amazon, bol.com, Allegro and Kaufland, and you invoice one Dutch partner. No EU entity, no VAT numbers, no seller accounts and no Allegro offer cap on your side, because the accounts are not yours. The plan — marketplaces, products, rules — is agreed before anything goes live, and how the brand appears stays under your approval. Enter Europe sets out exactly what that covers.
Which one fits
Pick the distributor if you want one-off volume and can live with losing the shelf. Pick your own accounts if Europe is strategy and you will staff it — that route is genuinely better than the alternatives once the team exists. Pick an operator if you want Europe run seriously and soon without building a European company to do it. The trade-offs behind each are laid out in more detail in own accounts, agency or distributor, and once the route is chosen the next decision is sequencing — the expansion order that works explains why we push almost every brand to prove one market before opening five.
If you would rather have the answer for your own range than a general map, the Brand Review is free, in writing, within five working days.