Germany at 52.8 million monthly recipients is down 1.7%. France at 38.8 million is down 4.0%, the steepest decline among the five largest markets. Italy at 38.1 million is effectively flat at -0.1%. Spain at 27.9 million is down 1.0%. The Netherlands at 6.6 million is the only one of the five to show growth, up 4.0%.

The French market context helps explain the 4% decline. France enacted the world’s first anti-fast-fashion penalty on September 1, and French customs reported EU small parcel imports down 30 to 40% since the July 1 parcel duty. The French regulatory and economic environment for cross-border ecommerce has tightened significantly in 2026. Some of that tightening is showing up in Amazon’s French reach numbers.

The Netherlands story is the reverse. Amazon is investing 1.4 billion euros over three years to grow its position in its most recently launched EU storefront. The investment is producing reach growth. Amazon is still behind local market leader Bol by a significant margin, with Bol widening its lead last year despite Amazon’s expansion, but the directional trajectory is positive.

The Nordic Growth That Shows Where Amazon Is Expanding

Denmark is up 18.4%. Sweden is up 13.9%. Ireland is up 12.1%. These are markets where Amazon’s base is smaller and where the combination of high English language proficiency, high ecommerce penetration rates, and Amazon’s Prime logistics advantage is driving meaningful audience growth.

The Nordic reach growth is worth watching because it suggests that Amazon’s EU expansion opportunity is not in the markets where it already has large footprints and is seeing slight declines, but in the smaller markets where its logistics and selection advantages have not yet been fully competed for.

The Greece Decline That Tells a Different Story

Greece is down 20.2%, the steepest decline of any market in the DSA report. The explanation is Skroutz, the Greek price comparison and marketplace platform that is the dominant ecommerce platform in Greece.

The ECB consumer survey we covered last month showed Greece at 79% Chinese platform usage, the highest in the EU. Greek consumers are price-sensitive, shop across platforms, and have a local market leader in Skroutz that Amazon has not been able to displace.

The DSA Transparency Data as a Competitive Intelligence Tool

The DSA transparency reporting requirement was designed to give the European Commission visibility into the reach and scale of very large online platforms for regulatory purposes. But the data it produces is genuinely useful for any brand or operator trying to understand which EU markets Amazon is growing in and which it is losing.

For brands planning their EU marketplace strategy, the DSA report suggests that Germany, France, Italy, and Spain are mature Amazon markets with slight reach declines, while the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Ireland are growth markets where Amazon’s audience is expanding. A brand that is already well-established on Amazon.de and Amazon.fr and is looking for EU expansion should be looking at Amazon.nl and the Nordic markets.

Our Take

Amazon’s EU Audience Is Not Declining Everywhere. It Is Redistributing.

The DSA transparency report is one of the most useful data points available for understanding Amazon’s competitive position in individual EU markets, and it is being underutilised as a strategic planning tool.

The headline EU-wide decline of 0.7% tells almost nothing useful. The country-level breakdown tells a great deal: Amazon’s four largest EU markets are all slightly declining while smaller markets in the Netherlands, Nordics, and Ireland are growing at double-digit rates.

The implication for brands is that Amazon EU expansion strategy should look different in 2026 than it did in 2022. Germany and France are mature, competitive, and slightly shrinking in reach. The Netherlands and Denmark are growing. Greece is being won by a local platform that Amazon has not found an answer to.

The DSA is producing data that the European Commission designed for regulatory oversight. Ecommerce operators should be reading it as a market map.