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How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

lectronz.com

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Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#321

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

nico_h wrote: post #296
Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU politicians seemed to be fairly captured by corporations generally. Less so than politicians from the countries themselves. Voting turnout for EU representatives is very low compared with voting for local officials. I think its because people know that who they vote for as their chancellor or prime minister can make a big impact on their lives. They see the EU parliament as this distant thing and don't follow it s…

It passed on a technicality of present reps voted against in majority but not enough total votes because the president had triggered a special vote for the last session before recess when less reps are present.

Was even one representative that voted for this from a region where the people that they represent wanted it by even the slimmest of majorities? I don't think so. These votes were in full defiance of their constituents.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#323

Post by Gormo »

tengwar2 wrote: post #299
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunno about that. I live in the US. I can start a small business today and the only thing I'd have to do differently is file an additional form on my taxes next year. Yes, that's a simplification that doesn't apply to every situation, but it is still completely accurate.

That's pretty much the situation in the UK if you are a sole trader. If you set up a limited liability company, that's a separate entity and has its own tax reporting requirement, but nothing onerous. I am a sole trader, and manage a small company separately from that. One thing I have heard of in the USA is the need for a "business licence". I'm not sure what that is or whether it applies to all businesses, so I'm n…

There's no standard concept of a "business license" in the US either. Generally, the corporate registration / LLC filing is all you need to start doing business as a limited liability company, and you don't need to do anything special as a sole proprietor. Sometimes state and local governments have special requirements for particular types of activity, and require registration to begin operating in a regulated field. City and county governments sometimes have a business tax that you have to pay if you're operating a facility open to the public, and may require the tax receipt to be on display on your premises.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#325

Post by gekkekoe »

full disclosure: I'm a micro-entrepreneur and I suspended all orders to other EU countries.

The PPWR is causing a lot of buzz, but they are missing the main point for a market place such as lectronz. PPWR is only for packaging and shipping material.

There's something similar called WEEE* for electronics. It's when you need to pay a fee at the end of the product life cycle. This is very similar to PPWR, you need to register in each member state to be able to sell electronics. The solution is also a one stop shop. But Lectronz fail to also mention this. I would argue that this is an even bigger issue than PPWR since it's already in place. Even if the PPWR is solved it's still nearly impossible to sell electronics to other EU member states.

Someone has been sleeping when these regulations were being discussed...

[*] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/...

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#326

Post by izacus »

weberer wrote: post #144
izacus wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that US also has pretty fragmented state law, doesn't it?

Not anything like this. The closest thing is charging local sales tax.

Environmental laws ("The California Effect"), payroll laws, payment laws, rules about what to sell and where are also different, aren't they?

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#327

Post by myaccountonhn »

Kudos wrote: post #239

Anti-EU regulation sentiment really seems to have an uptick in line with widespread availability of LLMs. The EU isn't perfect, but the catastrophising I read feels mostly like astro-turfing attempts at destabilisation. It's probably more easily noticed from inside the EU.

Yeah any thread on the EU is full with that on HN.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#328

Post by ericmay »

akie wrote: post #294
formerly_proven wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's yet another EU regulation that requires a rep for each EU country or you're not allowed to do business. EU single market is a bad joke at this point.

[flagged]

> Imagine trying to create a single set of laws to apply to all of the countries in North and South America at the same time.

I actually think it would be quite a bit easier than it is to create the EU. There's a lot more broad cultural homogeneity between the countries in the Americas than there is within Europe. Even on the topic of language you've got the vast majority of all peoples speaking some combination of Spanish, English, and Portuguese. And Latin America has a bit more limited geopolitical concerns than Europe does which makes managing some tensions easier than it might otherwise be.

But I'm not sure why you are considering "it's hard to create the EU" to be a defense against complaints or criticism related to the EU itself. Maybe it's hard and it won't work and the criticism is reflecting that and others are pointing out that it's a flawed task to begin with for some number of reasons. For my own part I think it has been a fascinating topic and a remarkable accomplishment of statesmanship to even get the EU to this stage, albeit like anything there are some very valid drawbacks.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#329

Post by jeltz »

graemep wrote: post #184
Robin_f wrote: post #13

This is actively preventing me from sending packages to other countries as a maker. No matter how small the risk is, I don't want to risk a 5000 euro fine for sending a small amount of packages to other EU countries.

Some people did the same when VATMOSS was introduced.

And those people were idiots. MOSS was trivial to implement and an improvement of what was there before. I implemented it myself for our company.

Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

#330

Post by PinguTS »

yardie wrote: post #29

One of the biggest problems that I have in the EU is that it's almost federated. EU will pass laws, countries will adopt those laws, but you end up with 20-24 different versions of those laws. With some countries being strict or lenient about the law that everyone agreed to. And a lot it is written from the perspective that large corporations are the only ones who do business throughout the EU. It's completely missed…

In the EU you have to distinguish between "Directives" and "Regulations".

A "Regulation" becomes "law" in any member state without modification. No member state has to adopt anything. Examples are the GDPR and the new Machine Regulation.

A "Directive" does not become "law" in any member state. A member state has to enact their own national laws to implement the directive until a given date. It does not have to be single law. It could spread many laws. An example is the Machine Directive before it was re-released as Machine Regulation.

More on the different types can be found here from the EU itself: https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-making-process/types-eu...

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