Unfortunately small businesses weren’t considered when this EU legislation was introduced - and the fact that each country has implemented it separately and in a different way makes it a nightmare to comply with. Although I very much agree with the ‘polluter pays principle’ I gave up shipping to the EU when I discovered that not only would it cost me 80 Euros a year to ship one or two envelopes to France, I’d need a Polish translator and a Greek solicitor as well! None of us is in the position of being able to afford to employ an agent to deal with all the licensing. What with that and the increasing cost of postage and the electronic customs notifications and all the different requirements for paperwork, I’m afraid the era of affordable, easy, worldwide e-commerce for microbusinesses is well and truly at an end. It was great while it lasted but I’m focusing on the UK for the foreseeable!
ETA: this is the most helpful site I’ve found for telling you what the requirements are in the various countries. It is, of course, German! (but the info is in English) https://verpackungslizenz24.de/en/eu-packaging-licence/?cookie-state-change=1626363995229
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This is what I’m thinking, that it just isn’t worth selling to EU countries any more but it has certainly had an effect on my views and sales (on the other side) It’s just as well I do this as a ‘hobby’ and not my full time employment. Thank you for the link, I’ll have a read through x
I’ve got a long list of places I don’t ship to in my shop announcement - it is simply not cost effective (I’ve never many European sales anyway but it is still worth shipping to the USA and rest of the world as long as they don’t excessive restrictions).
I’m slowly changing my listings to UK and USA only.
Unfortunately on folksy if you put a price into the ‘rest of the world’ box your items are still available for customers in Europe.
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