So if I sell an ebook from the US to someone in Germany, I believe I'm supposed to retain and remit VAT for Germany. If someone is in France and buys the ebook, I have to retain and remit the French VAT to France, etc.
There are some thresholds where if I sell below that, I don't think I have to remit, and those seem to vary at least across Europe, let alone all the US states and other countries.
Personally, I believe it's a mess and geographically based governments really don't know how to manage virtually based human interactions and they're just stamping old systems onto new ones. Yet, AFAIK, that's why a B2C seller is supposed to know the physical location of the buyers.
Also, it probably helps that German is mainly spoken in three countries: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Some quick googling leaves me with the impression that Austria has similar regulations, and the OP said Switzerland was considering adopting them. I'm guessing all almost all the publishers of quality German-language books are based in one of those countries, and they would probably be unwilling to be associated with a scheme to undermine the regulations.
You might be able to continue selling a small amount to a few Germans who have a bank account in another country or who will pay you in cryptocurrency, but the vast majority of your customers won't go to the trouble.
