eBay

mrdutch1001 · ‎04-15-2022

For those sellers who ship to Germany>The new regulations take effect on 1st July 2022.

Based on the Packaging Act amendments coming into effect on 1st July 2022, online marketplaces, are required to verify that sellers have a valid LUCID registration and (if applicable) are participating in a Dual System prior to any sales transactions being made to the German market.

https://ecommercegermany.com/blog/the-german-packaging-act-verpackg-how-to-get-your-online-shop-comp...

https://packhelp.com/german-packaging-act/

There is also this article/announcement about Germany's VerpackG on Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/ca/seller-handbook/article/verpackg-packaging-act-requirements/501392119812

busybeas_books · ‎04-16-2022

Interesting. I sell about a dozen items a year to Germany. Does this mean I have to register or does eBay? No official word from eBay yet?

ricarmic · ‎04-16-2022

This might be a good innaugural one for jasmen@ebay and velvet@ebay to see if they have heard what is in the works.

I'm interested to know how much the dual system costs. There appears to be a fair bit of recordkeeping work required too. I know that last year I had 42 transactions to Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Don't know the Germany specific number though, if I had to guess I'd say in the range of 20.

brettjet38 · ‎04-16-2022

So basically we all need to start using a lot less of this wasteful stuff...

...Thank You cards, are useless.

...Round Sticky Labels, self-promoting and wasteful.

...Plastic Tape

...Oversize Boxes for tiny items.

...it's overpriced and wasteful and soon we will be paying another "fee" to dispose of it.

I have been using as few boxes as possible when I ship, many things can go in padded envelopes without all the excess bubble wrap and filler.

As for shipping tape, we used paper tape back in the 70s and that is where we are heading now...

In the 60s we had paper straws, not plastic...

apmtrade · ‎04-16-2022

Do we need a license for letter post ??

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-16-2022

@apmtrade wrote:
Do we need a license for letter post ??

New required shipping method....

Boxes not required. Delivery cost...not so priceless!!!!

Notice it's Apple? It will be dropped off at a neighbourhood Mac's.

-Lotz

38e_avenue · ‎04-17-2022

Sounds scary ........ I sell on German Ebay and didn't get any notification yet.

zee-chan · ‎04-17-2022

More and more reason for me to just throw my books to the recycle bin than taking the effort to sell online...

marnotom! · ‎04-17-2022

Info from the dot-com site:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/extended-producer-responsibility-business-sellers/german-packaging...

Discussion on the UK board:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/New-packing-regulations-for-Germany/td-p/7189897/

ypdc_dennis · ‎04-17-2022

After reading the available tea leaves....

It applies to businesses on ebay selling to German consumers.

ebay's idea of who a business is:

* make items in order to sell them

* sell items that were bought to resell

Really not sure ebay.ca can separate out those sellers who are just getting rid of stuff they no longer use.

ebay's partner to manage this is Lizenzero.

https://www.lizenzero.de/en/ebay

Annual fee of 39 euros, minus a 5% discount for ebay sellers

My conclusion, as a tiny business seller with 60 euros worth of annual sales to Germany using about 0.2kg of packaging, is to block Germany at the end of June.

-;-

msau4301 · ‎04-17-2022

Timely post with Earth Day coming up! I'm all about recycling and try to do my part but this is a little scary. I can understand for big business (that's a lot of packaging!) but the little guy/gal selling a few things from home too (I guess it all adds up).

I wonder if the rest of Europe will follow suit? The article made it sound like it was the end goal.

Scariest part of the article: What are possible consequences of non-compliance?

Pursuant to VerpackG §34, failing to comply with these obligations can result in monetary fines of up to 200,000 EUR.

Thanks for pointing this out, I've been shipping less internationally since the VAT, but I used to sell about 10 items a year to Germany. There's always something to keep us on our toes!

apmtrade · ‎04-17-2022

Germany, Packaging Act, and be not surprised if/when other EU countries will follow and implement a similar Packing Act .

marnotom! · ‎04-17-2022

I don’t think that’s likely, @apmtrade, as I don’t think other EU countries place environmental stewardship or responsibility so firmly in the hands of the retailer or manufacturer—as opposed to the consumer or end-user—as Germany does.

I remember back in the day a German pen-friend telling me as an example that when she bought a tube of toothpaste, there would be a recycling bin for the box just before the store’s exit doors.

38e_avenue · ‎04-17-2022

@ypdc_dennis wrote:

Annual fee of 39 euros, minus a 5% discount for ebay sellers
My conclusion, as a tiny business seller with 60 euros worth of annual sales to Germany using about 0.2kg of packaging, is to block Germany at the end of June.

Well, I sold for more (246 Euro), but will do the same. ;-(

mrdutch1001 · ‎04-17-2022

I believe France is already on its way there...but don't know the full extent of its packaging act, although may be similar to that of Germany

kawartha-ephemera · ‎04-17-2022

Apparently German property taxes do not fund their recycling program, it seems domestic industry has been required to fund the recycling of their packaging for years. Now I take it they're requiring the same for imported goods, online traders are specifically mentioned as being expected to participate.

Related story. Last Xmas my wife bought a little Nespresso machine, it uses tiny aluminum pods filled with coffee grounds to produce a single serving espresso. At the time I was astounded to learn that we are expected to return the used pods to Nespresso for recycling, not sure how or where exactly they go as we haven't gotten to that point yet. Folks are shipping them back though, last week a local post office had a hand-written notice taped on the red letter box ... I'm paraphrasing but the message was "Do not put Nespresso pods in here, please bring them to the counter". Nestle (Nespresso) is a Swiss company, I'm guessing their pod return scheme is in response to this German program.

Information video

https://youtu.be/gy5WahtYItA

regs43 · ‎04-17-2022

Guess I won't be shipping to Germany anymore (stoped with VAT for a while anyhow, was planning to reopen) Guess not!

maximus7001 · ‎04-17-2022

We have been also selling on ebay.de for a number of years and I suspect this nonsense will shut down our listings there as there is no way to block domestic shipping (germany).

mrdutch1001 · ‎04-17-2022

"ebay's idea of who a business is:

* make items in order to sell them

* sell items that were bought to resell

Really not sure ebay.ca can separate out those sellers who are just getting rid of stuff they no longer use."

That seems to be the feeling from sellers over on Etsy...so rather than try to comply with this packaging act , they are choosing to withdraw from shipping to Germany; others not shipping to EU period.

As I left the worldwide shipping option behind me many years ago and in more recent years dropped selling anywhere outside of USA & Canada for 2 out of my 3 selling sites. The other selling site I still offer shipping to UK, Australia & New Zealand, but I never worry about those as I rarely sell anything to any of those countries...