How to Sell Online in Poland — Business Status, Consumer Rules and Channels

How to sell online comes down to two decisions you make before choosing a platform, an ad channel or a store name: whether you need to register a business, and where you will actually sell. Formally, e-commerce is, according to the glossary of Statistics Poland (Główny Urząd Statystyczny, GUS), “transactions conducted over IP-based networks and other computer networks”, in which goods are ordered online, and “orders received by phone, fax or e-mail are not e-commerce” (GUS, glossary of terms, read 2026-10-01). Eurostat's glossary defines e-commerce similarly and also excludes orders placed by manually typed e-mails (Eurostat, Glossary: E-commerce).

Logistics, customer service, website design and marketing have their own articles in this section, linked where they are useful. Here you settle the legal form and the sales channel, because everything else depends on them.

Do you need to register a business to sell online?

If you sell occasionally, you don't have to register a business straight away. Art. 5(1) of the Entrepreneurs' Law (Prawo przedsiębiorców), in the wording in force since 1 January 2026, says that the activity of a natural person whose revenue due “does not exceed 225% of the minimum wage in any quarter” is not business activity — provided that the person has not run a business in the last 60 months (Journal of Laws 2025, item 1480, read 2026-10-01). The minimum wage in 2026 is PLN 4,806 (Journal of Laws 2025, item 1242), so the limit works out like this: 225% × PLN 4,806 = PLN 10,813.50 of revenue per quarter.

Until 31 December 2025 the limit was counted monthly (75% of the minimum wage), so a guide that quotes a monthly limit is out of date. From 2026 it is the revenue for the whole quarter that counts, which gives more room: a weaker month is made up by a better one in the same quarter. biznes.gov.pl shows this with an example: “Mr Marek runs occasional sales of small gadgets over the internet. In January 2026 he earned revenue of PLN 2,800. This revenue counts towards the quarterly limit in force in 2026.” Orders from February and March therefore count towards the same PLN 10,813.50, not towards a new limit each month (biznes.gov.pl, read 2026-10-01). After January Mr Marek has PLN 8,013.50 of revenue left for February and March together.

Not registering does not release you from duties towards the customer. biznes.gov.pl says plainly that when selling without a business you must “respect consumer rights, including the right to withdraw from a distance contract within 14 days, and handle obligations relating to complaints, returns or repairs”. VAT is usually not a problem at this stage: you are covered by the subject-based VAT exemption, because revenue from unregistered activity will not exceed PLN 240,000 a year, “unless you sell goods or services that require VAT registration from the very first sale”. That is an exception for specific categories of goods and services — if your range is on that list, the exemption doesn't work, however small the revenue.

A second exception doesn't depend on revenue at all. If your activity needs a permit, a licence or an entry in a register of regulated activity, you register from the first sale, and the quarterly limit does not apply. And exceeding the limit in any quarter of 2026 means that from the day of exceeding you are running a business (Art. 5(3)) and have 7 days to apply for an entry in CEIDG, the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity (Art. 5(4)) — whether or not you had planned it for that moment.

Consumer-protection rules that apply once you sell online

Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights sets the baseline across the EU, and it applies in the same way to a one-person shop and to a large retailer. In Poland it is implemented by the Consumer Rights Act (ustawa o prawach konsumenta; consolidated text Journal of Laws 2026, item 1244). The terms and conditions (regulamin) come from another act. Art. 8(1) of the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means requires the service provider to define terms and conditions and to “make the terms available to the recipient free of charge before the contract is concluded” — provisions not made available in that way do not bind the customer (Journal of Laws 2024, item 1513, read 2026-10-01). The duty applies to anyone who “conducts, even incidentally, gainful activity” (Art. 2(6)), so also to a seller without a registered business who runs their own online store.

• Information before the sale. Before the consumer is bound by a distance contract, you must give them the information listed in Art. 6(1) of the Directive (Art. 12(1) of the Polish act, points 1–21 plus 3a and 5a) — among other things your identity and contact details, the total price including taxes and delivery costs, the arrangements for payment and delivery, and the conditions, time limit and procedure for exercising the right of withdrawal (point 9), together with the model withdrawal form.
• 14-day withdrawal right. Art. 9(1) gives the consumer "a period of 14 days to withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract, without giving any reason" (Art. 27(1) of the Polish act: “within 14 days […] without giving a reason and without bearing costs”, with the cost exceptions in Arts 33, 34(2) and 35). If you don't inform the consumer of this right, the period extends by 12 months (Art. 10).
• Refunds within 14 days. Art. 13 requires you to refund all payments, including standard delivery, within 14 days of being notified of the withdrawal — though you may withhold the refund until the goods come back or you receive proof they were sent.
• Return cost. Under Art. 14, the consumer bears only the direct cost of returning the goods, unless you agreed to cover it or failed to inform them that they'd have to.
• Exceptions. Art. 16 excludes certain goods from the withdrawal right altogether — personalised items made to the consumer's specification, perishable goods, and sealed hygiene goods once unsealed after delivery.
• The model withdrawal form. Annex I(B) of the Directive, in its current form after Directive 2019/2161, is the exact text a consumer can use to withdraw — you provide it, you don't reinvent it.
• The lowest price of the last 30 days when you advertise a reduction. Under Art. 6a of Directive 98/6/EC, added by the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2019/2161, any announcement of a price reduction must show the prior price, meaning the lowest price you applied during a period of at least 30 days before the reduction. In Poland this is Art. 4(2) of the Act on informing about the prices of goods and services (Journal of Laws 2023, item 168); the same requirement applies “accordingly” to advertising a product with a price (para. 5).

A 2-year legal guarantee applies on top of the withdrawal right. Directive (EU) 2019/771 makes the seller liable for a lack of conformity that "becomes apparent within two years" of delivery (Art. 10(1); member states may extend this). For the first year of that period, the burden of proof is reversed in the consumer's favour — a defect that shows up is presumed to have existed at delivery unless you prove otherwise (Art. 11(1); member states may extend this reversal to 2 years as well).

If you sell physical products, the GPSR — Regulation (EU) 2023/988, applying since 13 December 2024 — adds its own duty for distance sales: your online offer must show, "in a clear and visible manner," the manufacturer's identity and contact details, information letting the buyer identify the exact product, and any safety warnings that would otherwise appear on the packaging (EUR-Lex, CELEX:32023R0988, Art. 19).

A newer requirement applies to online stores too: Directive (EU) 2023/2673 added Art. 11a to Directive 2011/83, requiring a withdrawal function on your site — "labelled with the words 'withdraw from contract here' or an unambiguous corresponding formulation," continuously available throughout the withdrawal period and prominently displayed. Member states had to transpose it by 19 December 2025 and apply it from 19 June 2026, so it is a current obligation; the exact wording of the button in your language and any national details depend on how the directive is transposed in Poland.

A full walk-through of returns mechanics — and of what changes once a customer is in another EU country — is in our dedicated article on EU cross-border e-commerce; registration, the choice of taxation form and the next steps are in how to start an online store. This is not a complete list of formalities or a registration procedure.

DAC7 — what a platform reports about your sales

If you sell through a marketplace, an app with a selling feature, or any other platform, that platform's operator may have to report your data to tax authorities under DAC7 — Council Directive (EU) 2021/514, which amended the EU's Directive on Administrative Cooperation. This is the platform operator's obligation, not yours: you don't file anything for this purpose, though the platform may ask you for identification details and a bank account number so it can meet its own obligation.

So-called "excluded sellers" don't get reported. The threshold for exclusion requires both conditions to hold in the reporting period: fewer than 30 relevant sales activities and total consideration no higher than the equivalent of €2,000. The Polish Act on the Exchange of Tax Information with Other States (consolidated text Journal of Laws 2025, item 1379, Art. 75a(1)(24)(d), read 2026-10-01) defines an excluded seller as one for whom the platform operator enabled fewer than 30 relevant sales of goods in the reporting period, provided that the total consideration in that period did not exceed the equivalent of €2,000. It's a conjunction, not an alternative — a seller who completes 40 transactions worth a combined €1,500 exceeds the activity-count threshold and isn't excluded, even though they're under the amount threshold; equally, a seller who completes only 10 transactions worth €3,000 isn't excluded either, despite staying well under the activity count.

DAC7 has applied across the EU since 1 January 2023. Poland implemented it by an act of 23 May 2024 (Journal of Laws 2024, item 879), which entered into force on 1 July 2024 — 18 months after the EU start date. That is why platforms reported seller information for the first two reporting periods, 2023 and 2024, together in 2025 (Art. 10(1) of the implementing act), with a deadline of the end of January 2025 (Art. 9(1)(2)), and the Head of the National Revenue Administration (Szef Krajowej Administracji Skarbowej, KAS) was to pass it to other states by 28 February 2025 (Art. 10(2)). The report therefore covered sales from 2023 too, although the duty formally began to apply in Poland only in mid-2024.

Being an excluded seller changes nothing in your obligations to customers. The consumer rules in the previous section, including the 14-day withdrawal right, apply regardless of DAC7: one regime is about tax reporting, the other about consumer protection, and meeting the conditions of one does not exempt you from the other.

Keep DAC7 separate from the limit on unregistered activity, too. The unregistered-activity limit (PLN 10,813.50 per quarter) decides whether you have to register a business at all; the DAC7 threshold (30 sales or €2,000 in the reporting period) only decides whether the platform reports your data to the tax authority. You can cross one and not the other, in either direction. A platform asking you for identification details and a bank account number therefore does not mean you have to set up a business — it is a consequence of the operator's own obligation. What decides on registration are the conditions described above: the quarterly limit, 60 months without a business and the exception for regulated activity.

Where to sell: marketplace, your own store, social commerce

Polish firms sell online through different channels than the EU average — that is what Eurostat's data on sales in 2024 (2025 survey) shows. Among enterprises with 10 or more people employed, 10.69% of firms in Poland sell via an e-commerce marketplace, against 9.31% in the EU27. Selling via their own website or app is 13.18% in Poland against 17.72% in the EU27, so here Poland comes out lower. 18.55% of Polish firms have any e-commerce sales, against 23.59% in the EU27 (Eurostat, isoc_ec_eseln2, updated 2026-06-15, 2024 data, read 2026-10-01).

The difference shows in the value of sales too, not only in the number of firms: marketplaces account for 23.35% of the web-sales value of Polish firms against 15.54% in the EU27 (Eurostat, isoc_ec_evaln2, updated 2026-02-27, 2024 data, read 2026-10-01). In Poland relatively more firms use marketplaces and a larger share of turnover goes through them.

On the buyers' side the advantage of marketplaces is even clearer. Gemius, in its “E-commerce w Polsce 2026” report (Mediapanel passive measurement, July 2025 – June 2026), says that the category “sales platforms and multi-category retail” has a reach of 89% a month and 37% a day among internet users — far higher than any specialised category of shops — and accounts for 63% of all time spent in the “Online shopping” category (gemius.com, PDF report, p. 118, read 2026-10-02). Gemius notes that Mediapanel data “is not limited to buying” but shows internet users' whole activity in apps and on sites. This is reach and time from a passive panel, not actual purchases or a share of sales value — do not read 89% reach as “89% of purchases go through a marketplace”. For context, 69.73% of people aged 16–74 in Poland bought something online in the last 12 months (Eurostat, isoc_ec_ib20, updated 2026-04-17, 2025 data).

You can choose between three groups of channels:

• Marketplace. The largest proven reach, especially at the start. Allegro has the highest spontaneous brand awareness among e-shops in Poland — 85%, while the next brands are named spontaneously by 20–30% of respondents (Gemius, “E-commerce w Polsce 2026”, p. 9). Fees and API integration are covered in marketplace integration.
• Your own store. Full control over customer data, margin and brand — without a marketplace's built-in traffic, which you have to build yourself. Choosing a platform for your own store is covered in our platforms section.
• Social commerce. Facebook and Instagram Shops are not supported in Poland — Poland is on neither Meta's list of countries with full access nor its open-beta list (Meta Business Help Center). Meta also says that since September 2025 Shops use on-site checkout, with in-Shop payment processing discontinued, so the customer finishes the purchase with you, not on Facebook or Instagram (Meta Business Help Center). For a seller in Poland that makes it an advertising channel, not a transactional one. TikTok Shop registers sellers from Poland, and its Europe FAQ allows registration as an "Individual seller" without a registered business (TikTok Shop Seller Center Poland, read 2026-10-02); the page does not state commission rates.
• Price comparison. Price comparison sites such as Ceneo or Skąpiec are another paid traffic channel — Ceneo bills for a click-through to the shop (CPC) or a commission on sales completed on the platform (CPS) (biznes.ceneo.pl, read 2026-10-01); how they charge and when the cost pays off is covered in our article on price comparison sites.

None of these channels rules out the others. According to the same Eurostat table, 7.06% of Polish firms (10+ people employed) sell through both their own website and a marketplace, against 16.81% that have web sales at all — so about 4 in 10 firms selling online combine the channels. Social media and comparison sites add traffic, but they don't replace either of the two main channels.

How to sell online: the order of decisions

Before you pick a name, a logo or a specific platform, settle these in order:

1. Legal status. Check whether your expected revenue in the first quarter will fit within the PLN 10,813.50 limit — if so, you can start without registering a business. If what you sell requires a licence, permit or regulated-activity registration, you register regardless of turnover.
2. Sales channel. Marketplace first — faster traffic, less control over margin and customer data — or your own store from day one — more work upfront, full control? You can run both — about 4 in 10 Polish firms selling online do.
3. Geographic reach. Just your home market, or shipping across the EU from the start? If the latter, the €10,000 annual OSS threshold — which covers your combined cross-border B2C sales to all EU countries together, in the current and the previous tax year, not per country — decides how you set up VAT from day one rather than reworking it later (biznes.gov.pl, page 00270, updated 25.06.2026, read 2026-10-01; Directive 2006/112/EC, Art. 59c; EU OSS portal). Below it, you can account for VAT as if you were still selling domestically in Poland (or voluntarily choose the VAT of the customer's country); above it, VAT is due where your customer is, and OSS registration is the practical way to handle that without registering separately in every destination country. OSS is voluntary: you report all sales with foreign VAT in one return and pay the tax in Poland.
4. Launch budget. Platform, hosting, any marketplace integration and your first marketing spend — that's a separate costing exercise, not a legal decision.

If you're weighing SaaS, open source and custom code against each other, or want a real cost estimate instead of guessing from someone else's numbers, calculate the cost of your store — you get a breakdown by cost item, not a market average that may not match your product range or scale. A full breakdown of typical launch and running costs — platform, integrations, first marketing push — is in how much does an online store cost.

This order has practical consequences, not just formal ones. Legal status decides what you have to collect from your first order — pre-contract information, a withdrawal process — and whether VAT registration is immediate. Channel decides whose payment and shipping tools you're working within: a marketplace usually imposes its own checkout and return rules, your own store means configuring all of that yourself. Geographic reach decides whether VAT and your terms need to be built for more than one country from day one. Settling these three before choosing a specific platform saves you from reconfiguring later — the platform and its cost are the last step in this decision, not the first.

Promoting your first sale

Marketing an online store is a large topic of its own in this section, not one paragraph here. Before you spend anything on advertising, work out where your customers actually look for products — inside marketplace and store search bars, on Google, or on social platforms — and decide how you'll measure every channel on the same basis, rather than comparing numbers that mean different things in different tools. Only then choose specific tactics: a product feed for Google, a catalogue for Meta, a presence on TikTok, or an SMS campaign to repeat customers. The full map of ecommerce marketing channels — from Google Shopping and Meta Ads to SMS, affiliate marketing and price comparison sites — is in our ecommerce marketing section.