Hi everyone I’m looking for advice as I’m new to selling on Folksy. I have had a request asking if I sell to countries in Europe. Initially I have listed for the UK only but with the promise of an order I’ve been tempted 
I have no idea what regulations I need to follow. The threads I’ve found on here end in 2022 and I wonder if things have changed since then? It all sounds complex.
Any advice very welcome. Thank you in advance x
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I don’t have a clue how it works either, so watching with interest!
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It can depend on the European country. Germs. Has awful packaging restrictions. Ask which country they mean .
They haven’t specified, just several places in Europe !
The packaging recycling directives were what stopped me selling to Europe - I can’t afford to comply with most of them and I don’t speak Polish or know any Greek lawyers… anyway this is a useful overview and has a clickable map so you can see who requires what. I admit I haven’t looked at this in several years but I assume since it’s a German site they will have been efficient about keeping it up to date! EU-wide packaging act: What you need to know to comply!
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That is odd. Why would a customer be wanting that ???
Personally I would find out a bit more about the enquiry to try to assess whether it is genuine or spam/phishing/scam.
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I was thinking it sounded a bit odd. Do you think I’m being scammed?
I’ve sold over 4000 things here and never ever had anyone asked me to post to more than one country.
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First potential headache - multiple european countries have packaging laws which require you to register and then buy a license. How much that license costs and what the thresholds hold for having to apply vary from country to country, the license for Germany is relatively cheap (under 25 euro) for small amounts whilst the French one is significantly higher. The new PPWR legislation might further complicate this when/ if it comes into force.
Second potential head ache - IOSS (for EU countries) or VAT collection for non EU countries. For EU countries Folksy has had to register for IOSS so has to collect and remit VAT for orders under 150 euros (I think that’s the euro threshold), orders over that it will be collected at the border. Non EU countries have their own systems, which varies from country to country. For most of this Folksy has to do the hard part and you just need to quote the right number on your customs (electronic) paper work.
It’s weird that they haven’t specified which country - I’m wondering if they are planning on drop shipping your work.
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I think I’ll politely decline. It sounds too complex to sell to Europe for my tiny shop anyway. The sells will have to wait 
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It all sounds like a nightmare and all to potentially be scammed thank you for the advice, I’ll carry on waiting for a UK sale 
Strewth. You have to buy a licence for packaging and sending a product to the EU?? Never ever done such a thing, never heard of it. Great idea for encouraging international trade, the more laws and restrictions, the merrier, I guess. Thankfully anything of mine would go in a small mailing-envelope (mostly)…
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Even a small envelope would require the appropriate license… and very few countries seem to have any sort of threshold 
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I still can’t get my head around Europe, other sellers have tried to expalin it to me, it does sound like a huge headache and the info just isn’t going in to my bear fluffed brain, the packaging license was the final decision maker for me 
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Plus there are some countries that are a nightmare for parcel getting lost, when I used to sell on the bay, the number of sellers saying they have stopped selling to Italy, as the postman just leave parcels on the floor outside the house even in the cities, they just go missing
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