EU GPSR: Exxos, do you have an EU point of contact?

[exxos]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6 ... 20Sefcovic.

The European Union has proposed a two-euro flat fee on billions of small parcels sent directly to people's homes, which mainly come from China at the moment.

The new tax would mean that packages worth less than 150 euros (£126) are no longer customs-free.

Online marketplaces, including Chinese giants Temu and Shein, would be expected to pay the fee, said EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.

They should have just done that across the board and ditched the whole recycling costs BS.

Still don't see how the internet hasn't exploded yet with fines. EU to EU shipping needs licencing fees. No small seller is going to be able to afford it.

But if the EU charging 2 EURO per China package, how long before they start doing it to everyone else anyway ? That be ontop of the recycling licences which people can't afford already. Governments are very good at billing people for the same stuff multiple times. The amount of costs and work involved just to send a package to EU is just insane these days.

I don't think many realise that anyone within the EU sending packages to anywhere else in the EU also needs a licence. With everything being on computer these days, all the EU would need to do is have a cut off of like 10 packages sent by the same person per year to EU without paying the licencing costs. Then they can fine £200+.. Now imagine EVERY person getting that fine. They could ruin the whole world economy over night.

Are they not even enforcing their own rules ? or is all this just a ticking time bomb for people ? Like in 2 years time, they get found out for sending 100's of package without licencing and get fined heavily putting them out of business. Who would have thought trading would tune into a high stakes gamble like it has!

I see all those GPSR stickers on stuff from China now. Everything has that many stickers on it now its insane. Imagine all those billions of packages entering the EU needed all sorts of stickers and imagine the waste it creates in doing that alone. Then you have to pay recycling licences fees to pay for it all.. the irony..

I'm not shipping to Germany next year. The orders are to few to make it worthwhile and Germany was my largest EU customer base. Plus with new rules coming out next year, I really hope they fix it all, but I suspect things will only get worse for people. TRying to keep up with it all is a huge time sink alone. I don't have time for it, as I suspect many others don't either.

[Steve]

I honestly think most sellers are just going ahead doing what they normally do until someone tells them to stop. Sellers in the UK aren't liable for any European fine since we're outside of their jurisdiction, so it's not like you'd be handed a fine years down the line. If anything, if they had a problem they'd just send you an information letter on how to comply, otherwise stop. But really this whole thing has been created as a tool to combat China's cheap stuff, they'll only use it against them.

[viking272]

Well said Steve, I think this is exactly the case.

[exxos]

It could well be, but I still don't want the risk. Imagine a DFB1X getting stuck in customs (one has been stuck in customs close to EU for over 2 months now) , its bad enough at the best of times. I just don't want people bugging me because of issues I can't do anything about, or all the delays, or it being returned to me etc. Packages could get rejected because of all sorts of missing stickers these days. EU are enforcing things even more next year. How it will play out, no idea, but its just a huge stressful time sink at this point for me. It just seems like several huge ticking time bombs at this point.

Ebay Amazon etc are being forced to deal with all this, the sellers taking the fallout of it all. Its why ebay and the small business association are fighting it all in the EU. But last time I checked, they getting nowhere. Even if things do change in the future, damage will have been done anyway. More people in EU making more stuff, another problem for me as I said before.

Plus we are a bit fedup of dealing with the amount of address problems we get from EU customers, stuff getting lost or stuck in customs for weeks or months. Plus with English addresses at least we can probably tell they are wrong. I've said it for years about it all, so I am trying to stay positive and thinking doing away with the EU problems will save me a lot of time and stress. So maybe its a good thing I can't ship there anymore. Its not like I get paid for dealing with it all. I'm not exactly making millions in profit each year either. If anything I make a loss on everything. Its just a shame my customers become collateral damage in all this crap with the EU.

Someone did offer to resell stuff in EU. I could wash my hands of the whole thing and people could still buy my stuff. But most of my items are low cost and extra overhead of a 3rd party will likely put people off anyway. But that's the only possible option for EU customers currently.

[exxos]

Looks like the UK is doing the EPR stuff now..

https://www.quickbox.co/blog/industry-6 ... pr-tax-117

The UK's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) tax is changing how businesses select and supply packaging. It adds a new tax on household packaging to help local councils cover recycling costs. This shifts financial responsibility from councils to companies that produce, import or sell packaged products.

If your business supplies packaged goods, this tax will likely increase costs and impact operations.

I'm not looking into it. I believe currently the UK has sensible limits on package amounts and turnover. So it does effect small sellers... Yet...

I bet we won't see a saving on our council tax now they are finding funds elsewhere...

[exxos]

Well the sticker industry is likely booming now. Just seems like a monumental waste of paper IMHO.

IMG_3601.JPG

[exxos]

This popped up in my feed. Good summery of problems. He's stuck just like everyone else.






Its all connected






Cash anyone?

[exxos]

Shein fined €1m for EPR non-compliance in France

France is stepping up enforcement on EPR compliance.

Fashion giant Shein has just been fined over €1 million by the French government for failing to provide mandatory environmental product information sheets—required under France’s EPR legislation for products like textiles, EEE, and batteries.

This sends a clear message: non-compliance isn’t being overlooked.
If you're placing products on the French market, it's essential to understand your obligations under the AGEC Law.

[exxos]

Another kick for small business is if we have to start charging VAT next. I'd have to put my prices up 20%. While I could claim some vat back.. I really don't want anymore crap to deal with. It's like I'm forever getting tied up in red tape these days. No time to actually do anything!

As mentioned before. My plan to reduce costs and my workload was to downsize my store and only keep a few items which I are either profitable or sell well.. Neither is simple for many reasons..

I wasted 3 months looking into all that GPSR and EPR crap. I pay the German licence but I won't do next year. It's just something else to deal with and more costs when the market isn't even there anymore.

I spent more months getting grok to run the numbers on how to make things more cost effective.. Which basically lead to discontinuing over 100 items. All that time be for nothing if the uk forced us to charge VAT. I'd have to restructure all over again to try and made it work. I'm just done with the goalposts forever moving. As a sole trader I'm pushed for time as it is. I don't have a team of people working for me to figure all this out.

The numbers I have to deal with is crazy. I mean almost half my "income" is on postage costs alone. Imagine if 30k went on postage, zero profit, it would qualify me to charge VAT!!

Its bad enough the cost of parts has risen pushing prices up. On some items I've been putting up costs to start covering my time on it all. Prices going up, reduced marketplace, more competition, more red tape. I mean FFS give us a break for 5 bloody minutes.

A lot of companies went bust during the pandemic. The economy needs time to recover, not keep adding more work and costs onto the ones which are still standing!

Even though I haven't looked into it much, I get the impression that the EU cannot ship to USA anymore because of the new regulations or whatever. It seems Royal Mail in the UK adapted to the new system and started charging a extra pound for shipping to the USA because of extra work involved but it seems the postage systems within the EU hasn't adapted to this new system and is now refusing to ship to USA at all.

The way things are looking to me is that it will be practically impossible for any country to trade in the future unless you are absolutely big business. If Royal Mail hadn't adapted to the new USA system then I would be unable to ship to USA as well but thankfully I can at the moment, but if I lost the USA market as well that would be a huge blow and I would only be able to ship to UK at that point. It's like dodging a bullet.

The stress alone of everything constantly hanging by a thread and trying to navigate everything is just a ongoing nightmare I really don't want to deal with. I just want to create a few products and sell them to interested people, isn't even any profit involved in this work.. But because I am selling stuff and making little bit of money on the products themselves. I am classified as a business.. and now look at how everything is...

I was talking to someone yesterday about it all. It's like buy stuff on your pay VAT, sell stuff and you probably end up charging VAT on it and then you get charged income tax. For most that's 60% gone right there.. Mix in postage costs on top of that.. Then you have payment processing fees. EU GPSR / EPR etc to deal with. I'm already working for free.. Too many costs and overheads and basically to many fingers in the pie.

I mean VAT was paid on goods on import. Then VAT on selling the goods. Then income tax on the same goods. Its basically charging VAT on the same goods multiple times. Its madness, and that's not even the half of it all.

Aside from time, if you started off with a pound, how much would you actually get to pocket out of that pound, by the time all these fees have been added onto every step of the way?

It's getting like you need to buy something for a penny and sell it for a pound just to give the money away towards the other fingers in the pie along the way, even before you actually get the crumbs which are left to pocket, and if you make it enough crumbs you get to pay income tax on it.

Sorry for the long rant, im just sick to death of it all. It's always doom and gloom or pending doom and gloom with one thing or another these days. Daily life is enough of a grind without all this dumped on top as well at every turn. I was saying to a lady yesterday that the way things are going, I am just going to do the bare minimum to pay my bills and not bother doing anything any more because it really is pointless now.

[exxos]

EPR legislation is evolving fast across the globe — and 2026 will bring some of the biggest changes yet. From new U.S. packaging reporting, to EU-wide textiles EPR, producer obligations are becoming broader and more complex.

Oh the fun...

Hopefully the USA will have some realistic limitations...