"Due to 27 different regulations in the EU alone (and more in other non-EU-countries), the administrative burden for international e-commerce is huge. Other than packaging regulations in many countries, WEEE regulations do typically not have any minimum thresholds or exceptions for SMEs. Therefore, WEEE registration and recycling fees are required in every country (separately – even within the EU) when shipping internationally. This also goes for startups and small stores which have just started selling electronics in Europe. (The laws even apply before the first sale is made.)"
When GDPR went into effect, our company had ~5 clients in the EU (out of thousands). It was cheaper to drop those 5 clients than attempt to even read and comply with the regulation. We weren’t even doing anything nefarious, it just wasn’t worth our time to spend any brainpower thinking about it.
I was waiting over one year for shipping to Czech Republic. Finally I solved it by buying over Germany with service that created virtual address there and reshipped to Czech Republic.
Edit: I understand that for business especially non-european EU rules must be complicated. But seems to me that for the EU customer it works great.
purjolok|2 years ago
"Due to 27 different regulations in the EU alone (and more in other non-EU-countries), the administrative burden for international e-commerce is huge. Other than packaging regulations in many countries, WEEE regulations do typically not have any minimum thresholds or exceptions for SMEs. Therefore, WEEE registration and recycling fees are required in every country (separately – even within the EU) when shipping internationally. This also goes for startups and small stores which have just started selling electronics in Europe. (The laws even apply before the first sale is made.)"
https://www.ecosistant.eu/en/weee-directive/
ChuckNorris89|2 years ago
You mean the regulatory burden that the EU single market was made to fix but yet still exists?
stonogo|2 years ago
leesalminen|2 years ago
tssk|2 years ago
Edit: I understand that for business especially non-european EU rules must be complicated. But seems to me that for the EU customer it works great.
znpy|2 years ago