Germany
84m inhabitants€17.6bn from 908,000 direct sellers
Scheinselbstständigkeit
Structure the relationship wrongly and your distributors are not contractors at all — they are false self-employed, and the social contributions are yours.
Your Gateway toEurope
Europe is not one market. It is 27 legal systems wearing the same flag.
End-to-end market entry for American & Asian direct sellers. Subsidiary · Legal · Compliance · Staffing
Your independent distributor agreement will not cross a single border. Europe harmonised consumer law across all twenty-seven countries — but labour law stayed national, and each country shaped its own around whatever history it has with direct selling. The same person, doing the same work, sits in a different legal frame in every market you enter.
Germany
84m inhabitants€17.6bn from 908,000 direct sellers
Structure the relationship wrongly and your distributors are not contractors at all — they are false self-employed, and the social contributions are yours.
France
69m inhabitants€4.4bn from 691,000 direct sellers
The VDI status carries its own registration, its own social regime and its own ceiling before the seller must change status entirely.
Italy
59m inhabitants€2.7bn from 590,000 direct sellers
Legge 173/2005 sets the statutory frame, the tesserino di riconoscimento and the line that separates selling from recruiting.
Spain
49m inhabitants€611m from 193,000 direct sellers
Ley 7/1996 permits multilevel selling and draws a hard boundary at venta piramidal — the plan decides which side you are on.
Romania
19m inhabitants€299m from 263,000 direct sellers
Legea 363/2007 governs what a recruiter may promise, and Romanian authorities read earnings claims closely.
Finland
5.6m inhabitants€84m from 42,000 direct sellers
The Consumer Protection Act rewrites your cooling-off terms, your door-step conduct and what a party host may be told.
Population: Eurostat, 1 January 2025. Direct selling: WFDSA Global Statistical Report, 2024.
Europe is complex, but not complicated. Complex means many moving parts that reward preparation. Complicated means random and unpredictable. Europe is the first one.
3 weeks → 6 months
The spread between the fastest and the most sophisticated European entries.
Fastest — Spain
Set-up inside three weeks. Multilevel selling is permitted outright under Ley 7/1996 — the work is drawing the line at venta piramidal and getting the plan on the right side of it.
Most sophisticated — Italy
A dedicated direct selling law on top of EU law. Legge 173/2005 regulates the seller's legal status, alongside ad hoc tax and social security provisions and a food supplement registration procedure that differs from the EU baseline.
Everything between the decision to enter Europe and the first compliant order.
Who I am

Most European advice comes from people who have read the regulations. Mine comes from having run the organisations that live under them — twenty-plus years in direct selling and network marketing, in six countries and seven languages, with every rung of the ladder walked rather than read about. That is the difference between a memo that is technically correct and a plan that still works on a Tuesday evening in front of a room of hosts.
Dirk Schiffner on LinkedInUnited Kingdom · Switzerland · Germany · Spain · Czechia · Finland
Europe is not one market. Knowing where the seams run is most of the job.
Companies worked with
Partners
We work as a team of independent subject matter experts who genuinely master their own domain.
Independent specialists are assembled for the market and the problem: product registration and labelling, compensation plans, staffing, IT systems, leadership and local law.

GB Consulting
European Product Registration& Product Labeling Expert

Mesnja
Compensation Plan &IT System Expert

Meurer Consulting
European Staffing &Recruitment Expert

Maïco Solutions
Leadership, Training& Coaching Expert

Sellingathome
IT Systems &Commission Engines Expert

CSV Legal
Italian Lawyer &European Legal Expert
Tell us the market, the product or category, the risk, and when you need to enter. You will get a straight answer on what the entry takes before anyone talks about a proposal.
Switzerland — the centre of Europe. Working across the EU-27, UK and Africa.
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