Germany’s VerpackG (Packaging Act)

[mrdutch1001]

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

[pjcdn2005]

If you are sending merchandise, you are a business not a 'private person'. I would guess that if it is not a 'gift' than it is considered merchandise and same rules would apply.

[mrdutch1001]

I would assum unless marked as a "gift" any merchandise shipped to Germany is "merchandise/sold goods" and thereby subject to the packaging act. No one knows at this point how strict the enforcement of this act shall be with any type of mailings to Germany.

[apmtrade]

RE: Letter Post.

Contacted eBay, but eBay was not able to inform me if  Letter post was exempt from the German Packing Act.

After contacting the German license company " Lizenzero". The following info was received.

 Notice; Letter Post is not exempt all sales packing has a fee obligation.

“Lizenzero” info.

thank you for your e-mail and your interest in our service! We are happy to share more information and helpful instructions on compliance with regard to the German Packaging Act with you in the following:
 
Basically, the following rule of thumb applies with regard to the obligations under the German Packaging Act (VerpackG):
 
Every company is subject to licensing all their sales packaging (product packaging, shipping packaging, service packaging) that ends up as waste at the German private end consumer with a dual system if it:
 

• fills this packaging
• commissions the filling of the packaging (fulfilment) or
• imports packaged goods

 
Important to know: There are no exceptions! The VerpackG obligations apply from the first packaging and regardless of the size of the company. This means that airmail letters are also affected.
 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

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@apmtrade wrote:

Do we need a license for letter post ??

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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

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Maybe going forward only "virtual goods" will be permitted....To everywhere!! Then no need for packaging and shipping costs!!! Heyyyy just spitballing and attempting to keep my sense of humour (humor) in check. Anyone interested in going halfers on a sandcastle in the sky I'm building?

-Lotz

[brettjet38]

...The World Economic Forum says by 2030, you will own nothing and you will (still) be happy and a "Great Reset" will occur after COVID-19...

...everything is going to plan.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@brettjet38 wrote:

...The World Economic Forum says by 2030, you will own nothing and you will (still) be happy and a "Great Reset" will occur after COVID-19...

...everything is going to plan.

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Predictions made prior to The World Economic Forum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQfxi8V5FA

-Lotz

[darak10]

well, hurray for Andreas Landes, adding yet one more nail into the global e-commerce coffin.  Its a great idea that means well by addressing the important issue of recycling waste, but like all great ideas that mean well addressing important issues they end up ----ing over a whole bunch of otherwise nice, well meaning people just trying to either make a living or make a few extra bucks.   It seems the world is more and more about finding ways to offload someone's expenses onto someone else.  I dont take kindly to the possibility of having to pay some rando in their country for the privilege of throwing my packaging out, and for this reason, I say to h e double hockey sticks with the German market then.  

Germany has been a virtual ghost town for me since VAT was introduced, Ive gotten used to them not coming around anymore so cutting them off altogether isnt going to be an issue.  

No doubt there will be blowback onto ebay as thats a lot less sales for them to swallow due to the EU unilaterally changing the e-commerce rules to suit themselves and their, erm, "environmentally conscious mindset", or whatever they want to term it...its just another word for tariff and trade protectionism.  Even if I had German customers, I would still tell them to pound sand with this.  Man, Europeans used to wag their finger at the Trump administration for running headlong into protectionism...and look here they go, right into the same wind tunnel.  VAT and this together are just as bad from a intl business perspective as anything the orange lord ever did.  

[zee-chan]

Bumping this thread as I just had a German return buyer (used to be a regular until 2019). This is my first german sale in 9 months. I am thinking about sending her a message and tell her that I will stop selling to Germany soon... I'm thinking of telling her June 20 is my deadline and suggest that she add more to her current order if there is anything of interest.

For those of you who plans to stop selling to Germany because of VerpackG, when do you plan to stop? 

I'm thinking of sending a message to German buyers who bought from me the past two years as well. Doesn't hurt to make one more effort as last sales before I stop shipping to Germany eh? I will be including the link before in my messages.

https://www.verpackungsregister.org/en/information-orientation/knowledge-base/overview-of-amendments...

[zee-chan]

This is what I plan to send... too wordy? Too long? I'm also trying to figure out how to simpify this message as a couple of these buyers are not very fluent in English. 

We are sending this message to all German buyers who have purchased from us the past two years. As you might be aware, new VerpackG Packaging Act requirements will come into effect starting July 1, 2022. Because of this, we will stop selling to Germany starting June 20, 2022. If there is anything you might be interested in buying from us, please make your purchase by June 20, 2022. We will also offer 20% off discount to all affected German buyers; please reply to this message for more details. Thank you and please message us if you have any questions. For information on VerpackG, please visit the link below. 

https://www.verpackungsregister.org/information-orientation/knowledge-base/overview-of-amendments?r=...

Is June 20 too late to stop sales, or should it be fine as long as I get a June post stamp on it?

Thanks in advance!

[lucitabby]

A bit of editing to keep it short.

To all our German buyers who have purchased from us in the past .  The new VerpackG Packaging Act requirements will come into effect starting July 1, 2022 and we will stop selling to Germany starting June 20, 2022.  Please make any purchases by June 20, 2022 to take advantage of 20% off . Thank you and please message us if you have any questions. For information on VerpackG, please visit the link below. 

[apmtrade]

2/05/2022

Lizenzero is eBay's solution partner for the Packaging Act Amendment!

In the course of the VerpackG amendment, marketplaces will have to check all merchants who sell through them to Germany with regard to compliance with the VerpackG requirements from July 2022. eBay has brought Lizenzero on board as a solution partner in this process.

https://www.lizenzero.de/en/blog/detail/sCategory/131/blogArticle/203

Additional Packaging Act for sales to Austria from 2023 

Shipping to Austria: Legislative changes bring comprehensive novelties for online retailers from 202... 

( Info Lizenzero )

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

What is worse for the environment? 

Overuse of packaging to ensure an item arrives safely? Or, a person having to throw something out and buy it again because it arrived damaged? 

Not to mention, most small eBay businesses re-use a significant amount of packaging and packaging material, because they aren't in a position to buy and store wholesale materials at home or in whatever small storage space they have. 

This type of thing seems great for huge businesses (like one that starts with an A owned by a JB) because of the amount of small businesses that will opt to simply not ship to Germany based on the added complications. 

[recped]

Where in the Verpack Packaging Act does it say you have to use less and/or substandard packaging?

Amazon? They are the kings of excess packaging and still managed to send most things poorly packed.

[itolduandso]

No it doesn't matter whether you are private person or business, whether you are making one sale or many.  Germany's version of the regulation is strict - they regard you to do business even if you send only 1 single package per year.

The issue with this is that all EU countries will potentially get on this. 

If there is one fee to cover whole EU, I would pay that 39 EUR per year because that is just tax that makes everything more expensive even for Germany sellers.  

However, if it is going to be like you get to track each country separately and register and report that is going to be nightmare.

Also, while Germany privacy laws are strict, they specifically say the registration information in LUCID will be publicly available. That includes the address of the registrant.

So be aware if you register as a private seller, your address will be available in that register. 

This whole thing is new and likely will go through changes because I can't imagine this wouldn't have an impact even on eBay sales revenue.

Smaller sellers still make up big chunk of ebay profits.

I am not going to register, not because of any fees but because of having my address there for everybody to search for is not something I am into.

[itolduandso]

What information is publicly available in the packaging register LUCID?

The public as well as your competitors can view the following information:

• Firm & company address
• Contact data (Postal address, email, phone number)
• LUCID register number
• Date of entry or if applicable date of removal (You must inform the ZSVR if you stop your business activity in Germany)
• The brands you sell

Of course, you can check the packaging register LUCID to find the same information about your competitors. What’s not publicly visible is the amount of packaging waste a company produces in a year or which recycling scheme it works with. These information are only necessary for ZSVR to control whether all market participants fulfill their obligations.

 

[mrdutch1001]

Even though, many years ago,  I basically stopped shipping International, as there was insufficient interest to pay the high International shipping costs, I did continue to ship to U.K. (upon request) along with Australia and New Zealand. However, with recent changes (VAT,etc)  I no longer ship anything outside of  Canada and USA. PERIOD!  For me it's about keeping things simple and easy(K.I.S.S.) and that IS just so much easier! NO worries at all when not dealing with Internation shipping!

[regs43]

I wonder how this affect people sending relatives friends/relatives gifts? Does that person have to pay the $40 to register to have their gift sent? aka how is Germany going to know its not a sale and just a gift

I have a couple friends in Germany (they had not heard of this packaging act until I mentioned) and they thought it was stupid LOL

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@regs43 wrote:

I wonder how this affect people sending relatives friends/relatives gifts? Does that person have to pay the $40 to register to have their gift sent? aka how is Germany going to know its not a sale and just a gift

I have a couple friends in Germany (they had not heard of this packaging act until I mentioned) and they thought it was stupid LOL

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Wonder if going forward German customs will be xraying packages for packing material moreso than for contents or will it be a double inspection for all packages. 

Considering there are no similar requirements for N. American incoming parcels will German parcels being forwarded get stopped before they leave the country, looking for companies not following the guidelines?

Can you imagine the tracking details? Could definitely cause backlogs going both ways.

-Lotz

[itolduandso]

Don't give up internaitonal shipments. I do get lots of international shipments on rate hard to find items. In fact this week 30% of my shipments are outside of Canada and US and buyers are willing to wait for 3-4 weeks no problem. It's hard thing to pass these days because Canadian sales are close to ZERO ( I repeat ZERO..). If it wasn't US buyers I would be out of business. Despite the high shipping costs outside of Canada and US and the headache with VAT and IOSS and all that, it's still good junk of money. Personally I don't think the time will come back. This is the new normal. You need to realize since the begin of pandemic, the size of online commerce has doubled.

The number of online sellers?

They say doubled but I believe the number of online sellers is much higher than before pandemic because these statistics only capture large and mid-size sellers, but effectively everybody is a seller. If somebody sells on Craigslist, that is a competition to Ebay seller as well.

This is the new era. The carnage has began.

[itolduandso]

Do you have to pay mandatory? I believe you have a choice where you register and some you don't pay any registration fee but then you pay higher percentage for actual packages when you send them. Or did I get it wrong? Maybe somebody who is doing actualy shipping to Germany can share their experience.