Shipping to Germany and Packaging Regulations

[digital*ghost]

From memory there are not too many sellers in the forum who ship regularly to Germany, but some new requirements were passed into law on the 1st of January and will come into full force on the 1st of March, which will  affect anyone who ships to Germany, even if it's just once a year.

The basic jist of it, is that Germany has introduced some regulations for anyone sending items there in packaging - sellers are required to register with a central packaging agency, pay an annual license fee, and supply information about projected volume of packages, as well as packaging type - the move is to encourage sellers to use recyclable packaging, and by the sounds of it, licensing fees will eventually be based on the sutainability or "eco-friendliness" of the packaging that has been registered.

Currently incoming packages seem to be unhindered by this new regulation, but in a couple of weeks, that may change, with warnings, cease and desist letters, packages being destroyed, and even fines up to 200k Euros become a possibility.

More information here: https://www.gruener-punkt.de/en/services/packaging/german-packaging-act.html?fbclid=IwAR22eaT6QVoiRP...

[kopenhagen5]

So I guess letters excluded ?

[digital*ghost]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

So I guess letters excluded ?

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Yes, and personal mail as well (eg if you have family there and send them a package, this requirement won't affect that, it's for merchandise and commercial shipments. Sellers require a VAT ID to even be able to register for / get a license - unfortunately I'm not yet clued in on how non EU sellers can get a VAT ID though). 

[lyndal1838]

Try asking DHL Digi....they handle all the mail out of Germany so would have to have some knowledge of the laws of Deutsch Poste.

[digital*ghost]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

Try asking DHL Digi....they handle all the mail out of Germany so would have to have some knowledge of the laws of Deutsch Poste.

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I send all my regular mail through DHL, and surprisingly the first I heard about this was today, on FB, through a non-eBay seller's group. I'm planning on sending a quick email to my account manager, though. 

All of my packaging is recyclable so I should be ok if I can get through all the hoops. (I've already sent a dozen packages there this year, so it will probably be worth it for me, if the license doesn't cost too much). 

[melbourneclearance]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

So I guess letters excluded ?

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Yes, and personal mail as well (eg if you have family there and send them a package, this requirement won't affect that, it's for merchandise and commercial shipments. Sellers require a VAT ID to even be able to register for / get a license - unfortunately I'm not yet clued in on how non EU sellers can get a VAT ID though). 

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That is why I tick all my overseas shipments as "Gift" and put real name in the shipper's info. I decided "Merchandise" was no good years ago. So sue me.

[digital*ghost]

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@melbourneclearance wrote:

That is why I tick all my overseas shipments as "Gift" and put real name in the shipper's info. I decided "Merchandise" was no good years ago. So sue me.

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That's great for you, sucks for people like me who don't even get the option to be complicit in their buyer's tax evasion antics even if they wanted to (which I don't, plus shipping through DHL, it being merchandise is a given so there is no option to mark packages as anything else), and then get raged at by buyers because I won't break the law (cos "other sellers don't have a problem with it"). 

[melbourneclearance]

As far as I know, the law in Australia doesn't care whether you are sending a gift or a merchandise unless it is worth a large amount of money that needs you to pay duties/taxes. And German law governs me as much as Saudi law does.

It is always stupid for countries to try to tell people not in their jurisdiction what to do. As I see it, there is no law breaking on my part.

[digital*ghost]

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@melbourneclearance wrote:

As far as I know, the law in Australia doesn't care whether you are sending a gift or a merchandise unless it is worth a large amount of money that needs you to pay duties/taxes. And German law governs me as much as Saudi law does.

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German law doesn't need to govern you when they govern what actually makes it into the hands of their citizens. JMHO there is something to be said for being capable of resecting the laws and regulations of countries someone wants to generate profit from, even if they disagree with them.

Saying Australian law doesn't care seems a bit like saying the police don't care if you pay for your items or steal them, as long as you don't steal really high value stuff, though. And like I said, law aside, many sellers aren't even able to mark packages as anything other than merchandise - if the law was arbitrary (which is not the same as inconsequential), those with commercial contracts specifically for sending low value items (like myself) would surely have the chance to choose whether or not we follow it. 

You can draw your lines wherever you like, of course, and I'm not blaming other sellers for buyer's behaviour in as much as I am assigning a portion of the blame for the expectations that trigger the behaviour in some.  

[melbourneclearance]

I agree conceptually, dg. With the exception of this part: "Saying Australian law doesn't care seems a bit like saying the police don't care if you pay for your items or steal them, as long as you don't steal really high value stuff, though."

The police do care. I used to run a B&M shop and when we caught a shoplifter no matter how small the value I always closed the shop (with the shoplfter inside), rang the police, and waited for them to come. We must have caught hundreds of them. The cops came every single time, sometimes maybe they took more than half an hour but they came. One tried to challenge it and went to court, the cops came and gave me a subpoena as a witness and a $5 bill to cover transport. I went to court and the shoplifter changed his plea to guilty before the case was heard. The arresting officer was there too.