Understand how our commission structure operates across different EU jurisdictions under the Net-Base Model, and how agent versus deemed supplier transactions affect your payouts.
Understanding how platform fees are calculated and how European Value Added Tax (VAT) applies to your transactions is essential for managing your business margins. Unlike traditional domestic e-commerce platforms, our marketplace connects brands and customers across all 27 EU member states, automating VAT compliance at every step.
To ensure equal treatment and pricing consistency, we operate a Net-Base Commission Model. This means your fees are always calculated on the base value of the goods, isolated from varying regional VAT rates.
The Net-Base Difference: Traditional marketplaces (such as Amazon or bol.com) calculate commission on the B2C gross sale price, which includes customer VAT. We calculate commission strictly on the net price (excluding VAT). This mathematically guarantees that if our commission rate is identical to a gross-base marketplace, your actual fees are lower under our model.
Because B2C VAT rates across the European Union range from 17% to 25%, calculating commission on gross amounts forces you to pay commission on the tax itself. Under our Net-Base Model, you never pay fees on VAT.
Consider a product with a net price of €100.00 sold to a customer in a country with a 20% VAT rate (resulting in a B2C gross price of €120.00). Let's compare a standard 15% marketplace commission rate:
| Calculation Step | Gross-Base Marketplaces (e.g., Amazon, bol.com) | Our Net-Base Model (Salp) |
|---|---|---|
| Base Price | €120.00 (Gross B2C Price) | €100.00 (Net B2B/B2C Price) |
| Commission Formula | Fee = €120.00 × 15% | Fee = €100.00 × 15% |
| Commission Fee Charged | €18.00 | €15.00 |
| Effective Fee on Net Revenue | 18.0% (You paid €3.00 commission on the VAT) | 15.0% (Exactly matching the agreed rate) |
Under our model, you save €3.00 per transaction—representing a 16.6% reduction in commission fees. The higher the destination VAT rate of the customer's country, the more you save compared to gross-base platforms.
On gross-base platforms, the country where your customer resides directly changes your marketplace fees. For example, if you sell a €100.00 net item to a customer in Luxembourg (17% VAT), the gross price is €117.00, resulting in an Amazon fee of €17.55. If you sell the exact same item to a customer in Denmark or Sweden (25% VAT), the gross price is €125.00, forcing you to pay €18.75 in commission fees.
On gross-base marketplaces, you pay €1.20 more in fees just because of the customer's location. Under our Net-Base Model, your commission fee is exactly €15.00 in both cases. This guarantees complete geographical neutrality and protects your margins no matter where your EU customer lives.
Trigger: Used for all domestic B2C transactions where your stock dispatch location and the customer's delivery address are in the same EU country (e.g., a German brand shipping from a German warehouse to a German customer).
Under this model, standard brokerage rules apply:
Trigger: Used for all cross-border B2C transactions where goods cross a national border during sale (e.g., a German brand shipping from Germany to a customer in France or the Netherlands).
Under Article 14a of the EU VAT Directive, the marketplace acts as the seller of record:
Trigger: Used when a Dutch brand sells B2B to our Dutch operating entity (NL to NL) for a cross-border customer order (e.g., dispatch from NL to a customer in Germany).
Because both you and the platform are established in the Netherlands, zero-rated cross-border B2B rules cannot apply:
Ready to review your numbers? All order-level VAT classifications, self-billing e-invoices, and net payout statements are available in your portal dashboard under Finances & Payouts.