Shipping to Austria?
Summary: ct-v is concerned about shipping items to Austria due to a new packaging ordinance similar to Germany's. byto253 advises that such sales may not be practical due to enforcement with customs, and potential buyers may be deterred by shipping costs. reallynicestamps suggests experimenting with shipping rates and advises using tracked air mail, also questioning whether DVDs would work in Austrian machines. darak10 expresses frustration with the ordinance, considering it a domestic issue that shouldn't burden international sellers, and notes the high costs involved for limited sales. Lastly, snoopwiz mentions that Germany might have relaxed its regulations, sharing their own experience of not having faced issues when shipping.
I just received a message from someone in Austria who wants to buy one of my items. With the Germany packaging act that was implemented last year, I searched online to see if Austria was also affected by this and I saw that they implemented their own version of the packaging act this year.
https://verpackungslizenz24.de/en/austrian-packaging-ordinance-2023/
It seems to be as restrictive as the one in Germany. I'm wondering if someone has had any sales to Austria recently? I would like to know if this packaging act is really being enforced.
snoopwiz
·2 years agoNot suggesting you do ship. Not suggesting you don't ship.
I am somewhat sure that Germany put that whole thing on the back burner for now. I did not register, I did not send any "fees" and I continue shipping to Germany, a few times a month and thus far, its been a "nothing-burger"
darak10
·2 years agoI wouldnt mess with this, just cancel as "buyer address" if they buy. Germany were enforcing this pretty hard core when theirs came out and we were given a choice to opt in or out. I like many others opted out. Its not my responsibility as a Canadian to pay for domestic programs in a foreign country. I think their "polluter pays principle" is EU horse hockey, just another disingenuous and self serving political attempt to offload responsibility for a domestic issue onto someone else. I have a two word response for the Austrian state on this one and I wont share exactly what it is.
That and nobody but the giant guys sell enough in Austria to warrant paying 130 euros a year as a user fee to access their market.
This is just further to my point on another thread about how due to stuff like this, intl ecommerce is literally backing customers into a corner of looking for what they want domestically. increasing bureaucracy + internet = ever snowballing nightmare
reallynicestamps
·2 years agohttps://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/tools/find-a-rate.page
Do a little experimenting.
Here's the address of the Vienna City Hall to help since you don't have the customer's one.
Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 1, 1010 Wien, Austria
And you want tracked Air mail.
Surface is too slow and untracked is probably not secure enough.
Will your DVDs/BluRays work in Austrian machines? Ask the customer.
byto253
·2 years agoBasically not worth messing with, and it is easy to enforce with the customs info. In my experience those potential buyers melt away when the get a shipping quote.