TikTok Shop is preparing to launch in Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Good news for e-commerce entrepreneurs who want to expand their reach, but a new market also brings new compliance obligations. Think VAT registrations and EPR for packaging. In this article, we explain what's happening and what you need to pay attention to.
TikTok Shop is growing fast in Europe
TikTok Shop is currently active in six European countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The results are promising: in Germany, around 15 percent of consumers already shop through the platform, less than a year after launch.
Now ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, is setting its sights on Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium. This is evident from job postings for a so-called 'strategic readiness team' and customer solutions managers who speak fluent Polish or Dutch. The seller environments have already been set up, but are not yet officially live.
Poland is an interesting market: the country has more than 38 million inhabitants and a fast-growing e-commerce sector. Social commerce, selling via social media, fits into a broader European trend in which entertainment and shopping are increasingly merging.
Selling in Poland? Then you need a Polish VAT number
As soon as you sell products to Polish consumers, you have to deal with Polish VAT regulations. There are two routes:
- Via OSS (One Stop Shop): if you sell from the Netherlands and your total EU turnover to consumers exceeds €10,000 per year, you are required to charge the VAT rate of the customer's country. With the OSS scheme, you do this through one central return at the Dutch Tax Authority, without having to register separately in each country.
- Local VAT registration in Poland: do you store stock in a Polish warehouse, or do you use a fulfilment service in Poland? Then a local Polish VAT number is mandatory. In that case, the OSS scheme does not cover sales from that warehouse.
The Polish standard VAT rate is 23%. Make sure your administration is set up for this before you start selling.
EPR for packaging in Poland: mandatory from day one
In addition to VAT, in Poland you also have to deal with EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) for packaging. This is a European obligation that holds producers and sellers responsible for recycling the packaging material they place on the market.
In Poland, this obligation applies from the very first gram of packaging material, so there is no minimum threshold. You must register in the Polish BDO register (the national waste database). In addition, you are required to file an annual declaration of the amount of packaging you have used.
An important point of attention: your BDO number must be stated on all invoices to Polish customers. If you don't do this, you risk fines of up to €220,000.
New opportunities, but make sure you have a solid compliance foundation
TikTok Shop offers a new sales channel that taps into the growing popularity of social commerce in Europe. The Polish market is large and relatively untapped for many Western e-commerce entrepreneurs.
At the same time: a new selling country means new obligations. VAT and EPR are the two most common stumbling blocks. Make sure your compliance is in order before you go live. This prevents not only fines, but also unnecessary stress afterwards.
Do you have questions about what selling via TikTok Shop in Poland means for your situation? Feel free to explore our overview of European EPR registers for more context.
