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How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
931–940 of 1001 posts
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#932I don't know if this EU regulation will work or not (most likely not), but I can share how it is done in China (where package volume is orders of magnitude higher). China identifies "choke points" most packages pass: large platforms and logistics companies. Yes, Chinese e-commerce is more centralized on Alibaba/JD/PDD etc, but there are actually much more logistics companies in China than in EU. They also do not intr…
PPWR passed in August 2025 and this part of it came into effect now (a year later). There are other parts of the same regulation that come into effect in 2030.
This is EU doing it in a long span of time similar to GDPR or DMA. A lot of companies just choose to ignore the regulation until a week or two before it comes into effect.
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#933Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a very American mindset. I've worked across both the US and EU at a variety of companies with customers, partners, etc and it's a clear pattern: - Americans are usually willing to skirt the rules and figure it out later. This comes with risk but is ideal when you're early stage, low stakes, and you couldn't follow the rules anyway. - Europeans absolutely want to do it by the book and will be shocked if you sug…
> Europeans absolutely want to do it by the book and will be shocked if you suggest otherwise. My experience working for small European companies is the opposite. Mostly companies run by kids of old money who truly believe rules apply to them
Don't apply* !
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#934Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except you can sell through Amazon (or other online store) and they will manage all that for you as a single fee. Exactly the solution that the article proposed for the EU rules.
There are already places that will take an annual fee for dealing with this bureaucracy for you, as well.
This article is claiming that his online platform wants to offer that service but they are legally forbidden from doing so. In fact, they suggest allowing services to perform this is a reasonable solution to the whole problem.
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#935[flagged]
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#936I don't know if this EU regulation will work or not (most likely not), but I can share how it is done in China (where package volume is orders of magnitude higher). China identifies "choke points" most packages pass: large platforms and logistics companies. Yes, Chinese e-commerce is more centralized on Alibaba/JD/PDD etc, but there are actually much more logistics companies in China than in EU. They also do not intr…
> They also do not introduce these regulations "from tomorrow" (well, sometimes they do, but it's a different topic). E.g. the non-degradable plastic regulation was issued in 2020 to come in effect in 2025. This gives time to prepare and implement (unlike EU border controls mess...) The EU does that most of the time, and you have to add the duration of the European legislative process (~2 years in average) so it's ha…
But you also don't adapt to something that is not necessarily going to be law? Between them passing it and it going into power is less than 1.5 years.
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#937Earlier quoted context omitted.
UK taxation is absolutely absurd. Kills the ambitious. Just look at what happens between 100-125k, both from the perspective of tax and loss in benefits for parents.
Well, as sad as it is, that's still better than what they have across the Channel. (You'd pay 44.4% tax on the equivalent of 125k GBP.) But thank you for correcting me, I wasn't aware of that!
Yes, but you'd lose childcare benefits in the UK so it's much, much worse if you are a young parent.
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#938Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you look at what I responded to then you see that it was about every country having their own rules. "More EU" would mean harmonizing them in the sense that they are all the same and you'd have a single regulatory body. I don't see how less EU would make this particular problem any easier. It would certainly give you an even harder time to deal with 20+ states that all impose import bureaucracy. That's exactly wha…
What about the argument of these regulations not existing in the first place were it not for the EU?
As in the UK, where we've since gotten rid of all the regulation and live in a halcyon utopia.
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#939I've been following the PPWR in news and social media. Everybody is lamenting about the micro-enterprises that see their business squashed, but mostly because they are involved in one. I do empathize with them and really want to see these small business surviving and thriving. But then, in the context of discussion, nobody asks what matters: Cui bono? To me, this looks like a direct handout to Amazon and similar (big…
Amazon doesn't care about guys like Lectronz, they're far too small, and the EU Commission really doesn't care about Amazon. They're openly antagonistic to US tech firms. Occam's Razor applies here. These regulations exist because the EU is 10,000+ civil servants writing whatever laws they want with no meaningful democratic accountability (this sort of thing is nobody's priority). They love creating new laws, they lo…
> They're openly antagonistic to US tech firms.
Utterly wrong. US tech firms have on many occasions violated deep fundamental EU regulations/rights and have barely received a slap on the wrist (fines). Very little is done to keep them in check, and to this day the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the member States are all very dedicated customers of big american tech firms (eg. Microsoft).
> they love micromanagement
Quite the opposite actually. EU regulations and directives give great margin for state-specific implementation, as shown in this particular case with each country having different packaging authority/fees. If anything, the EU is mostly about destroying existing pro-consumer pro-worker pro-environment pro-privacy regulations that were in place in member states. See also: deregulation of medical devices, deregulation of food and toxic chemicals, deregulation of public services. That's precisely because of deregulation that the EU is widely criticized from within (side-note for the nitpickers, they're not technically deregulating, but rather regulating with looser rules and bodies with no actual enforcement capacities which is overall equivalent).
Re: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
#940Earlier quoted context omitted.
And that's the irony for me - adds another package over package, but it probably complies with documents, I hope they are filled in paper. I get the idea behind the law. Not once I was surprised how many waste is in packaging and badly packaged goods (not only shipped, but even available in local shop). But this regulation changes nothing, just adds layer of paperwork and broke international shipping (many non-eu sto…
Don’t worry there’s regulation in the works that will mandate how much air you can have in the box[1]. The EU is on the case. [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:52...
Good lord. At what point do we need to just wipe the slate clean and start over?