my understanding is that German customs can follow up and if they determine you as the seller sold into their market while not compliant with their act and if not they can fine you. And as we all know the brown stuff flows downhill so this will be left squarely at the sellers feet if people choose to flaunt it. The fine amounts are significant and prohibitive. Its your decision and you'll need to dig into it more on your own, but if it was me, I wouldnt even think about it - I'd cancel it and refund them. I did that already once last week - a German buyer with a German address somehow got thru and paid on an item even with a block on the country, and I didnt even think about it, I just turned around and cancelled & refunded him.
The way I see it, people are playing with fire if they want to contravene something like this. Germany means business, and my reading of it is that it is draconian in a typically harsh German way - play by our rules, or you dont play at all. After reviewing it, my decision to stop selling to Germany took a matter of seconds. It was simple for me: I bear no responsibility to a foreign country to subsidize their domestic programs & services. This could have been handled with a simple user fee at point of sale but they didnt do that, they chose instead to turn this into a giant colossal mess for everyone, harming all our bottom lines in the process.
Like all ideas with reasonable intentions, Germany's desire to address the legitimate issue of excessive packing waste (on this note, my mother in law yesterday got single bottle of nail polish she bought on amazon delivered in a giant 20 in x 20 in x 15 in box lol - looking at this thing, we were all like, this is ridiculous - she ordered a bottle of nail polish!! haahaha) is honourable and responsible, but theories never translate into practice very well and this has brought the law of unintended consequences into effect.
Think of all the VAT they have forfeited already by enacting this law - 20% on how many untold thousands of transactions, poof! gone, right when the country is facing a major economic downturn not to mention a pretty stark winter if Russia turns off the taps. My prediction is that this legislation will end up blowing up in Germany's face if it hasnt already, but that doesnt affect me, I've already washed my hands of it. That was the intention of posting the topic in the first place, to help myself and fellow Canadian sellers better understand our obligations and responsibilities as sellers so we can make the best decisions about stuff like this for themselves.
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