Taro Modelmaker stopping EU shipping due to "waste management charges"

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**beast_gts**

From their FB Page:

Due to the impending EU deadline for GPSR and Waste management, I have decided to halt all sales to the EU effective Sunday 24th November. Sales within the UK are not effected only those shipped into EU countries and Northern Ireland. Although GPSR enrolment becomes mandatory as of 13th December I need to give myself some breathing space.
I hope to find a resolve to be able to continue selling and shipping within the EU but from my investigations this will cost a minimum of £3000 per year just to remain compliant with only a handful of countries. While sales to the EU have been okay (declining since Brexit) 3k a year will be a huge hit to then hope I sell enough to make it worthwhile.
The waste management charge to Spain alone is 480 euro for the first year. So even when I get compliant, Spain will be off the cards. The GPSR regulation also applies to Norway but the waste management shouldn't... these are all things I need to look into and ensure I set up correctly. Considering there are potential fines of up to €20,000 one fine would see an end to my business.
If you want anything this side of the New Year you have a week to order, sorry this is as frustrating for you as it is for me.
This also includes Northern Ireland. There is a similar bill working it's way through UK parliament so expect more of the same for years to come. Regulations like this will have a massive effect on crafts people.

The "waste management charges" aren't something I'd heard about (but I'm going to read up on), so it'll be interesting to see what other firms do.

**Dysartes**

Hmm - definitely not an expert on this, but if the Eurosceptic papers haven't been ranting about it as being an issue, I suspect Taro has gotten the wrong end of the stick about something.

That 480 euro charge for Spain is something I can't find a reference to anywhere - the only thing I've seen is a mention of increased tax for residents of Spain.

I'd be interested to hear what Taro thinks will be needed to be done to be compliant with these regulations/laws, though.

**lord_blackfang**

Also not an expert, my guess is you are expected to hire a consultant of some sort to do risk assessment in your business and provide you with a certificate of compliance or to assist you in writing a report that will pass EU inspection. My cousin in law does something like that, but for social responsibility and sustainability. 480€/year is a reasonable ballpark for that sort of "job".

**insaniak**

As far as I can see, the GPSR applies to products sold on European marketplaces. It won't apply to UK webstores at all, as they're not in the EU... it would only be an issue is they're selling through an online marketplace with an EU presence, like Amazon.

**Lathe Biosas**

Thank goodness I'm in the US, we don't have an environment here to worry about...

Huh, I could've sworn I had a house on the coast...

I hope you EU guys get his stuff, I love it.

**kodos**

insaniak wrote:
As far as I can see, the GPSR applies to products sold on European marketplaces. It won't apply to UK webstores at all, as they're not in the EU... it would only be an issue is they're selling through an online marketplace with an EU presence, like Amazon.

no, the changes made in 2023 and which are now in force mean the GPSR applies to products targeted to EU consumers no matter where the shop itself is

as far as I am aware the changes to General Product Safety Regulation are all about closing loopholes and/or making things more clear, like that if there are saftey warnings they must be communicated in EU as well and any product recall must have a cost free replacment or repair option

yet the waste managment changes are about shipping waste material so I don't really know what he is refering to

**beast_gts**

Blotz have just posted this:

To all our customers in Europe and Northern Ireland.... our apologies.

Due to the new GPSR legislation that the EU have introduced (which comes into force as of December 13th) we will be forced to disable the shipping option for shipping addresses in either Europe or Northern Ireland as of December 1st 2024.

Sales within the UK and to any other area of the world remain unaffected (for the moment).

This GPSR legislation requires manufacturers to jump through a number of hoops to provide paperwork on each and every product to prove its safety (within the parameters of "normal use") , ensure each individual product is traceable (e.g. with a serial number) and enrol with an individual based within the EU to act as a named point of product safety (with the inherent price-tag that would involve).
It also covers the resale of goods which come from outside of the EU.

If at some point in the future this legislation is either removed or relaxed for small manufactures - or we figure out a way to deal with it - then we will be able to resume shipping items to you.... but with fines of up to 20,000 Euros for non-compliance, it is simply something we cannot risk.

Orders received before December 1st will be shipped as normal as hopefully they will get through to you before the new rules come into force.

As always, our website is www.blotz.co.uk

**JWBS**

EU is the undisputed world leader in obstructive regulation these days, real shame they can't seem to do much else.

**lord_blackfang**

Yes, it's absolutely horrid that manufacturers have to prove their product is not harmful to the customer

**kodos**

digging a little bit and not much able to find outside people complaining about Amazon and Ebay making it a bigger problem than it should be for sellers

Main thing I found is, that with Brexit, UK sellers now must follow the rules for exporting goods and not domestic sales and as the EU regulations changed after Brexit, the UK while still having the EU GPSR in place, did not incorporated the latest changes and therefore "warned" businesses that they need to do things on their own if still selling to EU or NI.

Thins was known for more than a year now but with everything Brexit people ignored it until the last moment and now are catched by surprise that things changed for everyone.

**NAVARRO**

Brexit keeps on giving, this is of no surprise.

**The_Real_Chris**

Freeeeeeedooooooommmmm

**JWBS**

lord_blackfang wrote:
Yes, it's absolutely horrid that manufacturers have to prove their product is not harmful to the customer

These new regulations will save many lives, no doubt.

**NAVARRO**

JWBS wrote:
lord_blackfang wrote:
Yes, it's absolutely horrid that manufacturers have to prove their product is not harmful to the customer

These new regulations will save many lives, no doubt.

Let me guess you think waste/ recycling/ public health/ health warnings etc, etc are of no importance... Great. No wonder Brexit prevailed.

**JWBS**

NAVARRO wrote:
JWBS wrote:
lord_blackfang wrote:
Yes, it's absolutely horrid that manufacturers have to prove their product is not harmful to the customer

These new regulations will save many lives, no doubt.

Let me guess you think waste/ recycling/ public health/ health warnings etc, etc are of no importance... Great. No wonder Brexit prevailed.

Criticism of heavy-handed regulations shouldn't lead you to that conclusion.

**NAVARRO**

JWBS wrote:
NAVARRO wrote:
JWBS wrote:
lord_blackfang wrote:
Yes, it's absolutely horrid that manufacturers have to prove their product is not harmful to the customer

These new regulations will save many lives, no doubt.

Let me guess you think waste/ recycling/ public health/ health warnings etc, etc are of no importance... Great. No wonder Brexit prevailed.

Criticism of heavy-handed regulations shouldn't lead you to that conclusion.

Your comment on the other hand showing a disdain about public lives does.

"These new regulations will save many lives, no doubt."

**JWBS**

Okay then I should assume you're in favour of infinitely increased regulation and that no regulation goes too far Navarro, and any sarcastic response you may have will only be further proof of this.

**kodos**

so EU regulations that a manufacturer or trader that imports good into the EU needing to make sure that their products is up to safety standards and if not offers free repair or replacement, is overregulation and should not be there?

**NAVARRO**

In the world we live in and if you noticed theres a Waste global problem, that is far from resolved, some countries are having incentives and penalties to tackle that. Theres also a massive problem of companies cutting corners and using "dangerous" materials and even ingredients on the food you have etc... so asking them to clearly disclaim them and traceability is one way to go about it.
So yeah something needs to be done in regards to these issues. No sarcasm here.

Its EU or other countries enforcing strict rulings to stop this the problem? Or companies using these sketchy materials in the first place?

Im not even going to open the can of worms to categorise how some miniatures resins or print resins are unsafe and should be banned.

**Olthannon**

Someone blaming this on overregulation shows how ignorant people are of the wider issues globally of recent years.

The reason behind this is down to countries outside the EU trying to bypass current regulations to flood markets with cheap mass produced unlicenced crap. This crap tends to be full of banned substances that have an adverse affect to human health. Or it's cheap manky food sold that will put EU farmers out of business. This also affects EU small businesses because they struggle to compete.

Although not entirely the fault of Brexit, this directly impacts because the UK is the source for a lot of this unregulated crap starting to pile in. If we were still in the EU this issue wouldn't occur for us because we wouldn't have to pay additional cost.

Americans thinking they aren't going to be affected, just wait a couple of years until these touted tarriffs come in for imported goods.

Also: "I've had a cursory google and can't see anything so I don't know what he's on about" isn't exactly a good thing to post.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Blotz, fine makers of MDF terrain just announced something similar.

https://www.facebook.com/BlotzTerrain

**YodhrinsForge**

Olthannon wrote:
If we were still in the EU this issue wouldn't occur for us because we wouldn't have to pay additional cost.

This is what it comes down to in the end.

**NAVARRO**

YodhrinsForge wrote:
Olthannon wrote:
If we were still in the EU this issue wouldn't occur for us because we wouldn't have to pay additional cost.

This is what it comes down to in the end.

Its more than that, I dont think UK will track far behind with new measures towards labelling, taxing companies etc.

**Mallo**

CheckPoint Miniatures have also announced that they are now stopping all EU orders.

I dug into the costs a little bit and yeah...if there is no way around this going forward it will be the death of small miniature companies in the UK. You are looking at anything from €5k to €10k per year to remain compliant, or going in with a whole group of others and using a third party service to do the work for you but that is still going to set back a large group of companies a few €1000 a year each.

**The_Real_Chris**

Well part of the intent of these rules is to drive companies outside the block out of business or get them to move inside the block. When one can trade 'out' from the EU in one direction with the backing of a large internal market, and disadvantage stuff coming the other way, its a win all round. In theory the UK could apply retaliatory rules, but still it isn't parity, those EU companies with the large internal market survive anyway, yours still die and the restrictions you put in are paid by your citizens who now have no choice but to buy from EU as your companies have gone.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Here's ebay's take on things

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/global-sales/general-product-safety-regulation

Here's the big bundle of info from the EU

https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/doing-business-eu/eu-product-safety-and-labelling/product-safety/general-product-safety-regulation_en

Given that Northern Ireland counts as being in the EU for this, I wonder if a 'paper office' there would be enough to sidestep this for UK businesses

**Overread**

I figure there will be panic now (launching this just before Christmas is a cruel blow) but eventually one or two of the larger independents will work out some kind of group based approach and start getting others to sign on to join in.

That's the only way I can see it working for smaller firms. The forms and safety is one barrier, but that's mostly a copy-paste of the same info for models. The real sting is the local rep and I can only see that working with groups of businesses having the same rep.

**Mallo**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

Given that Northern Ireland counts as being in the EU for this, I wonder if a 'paper office' there would be enough to sidestep this for UK businesses

There is probably a way round this, most UK companies are using an Irish store as their 'EU' address since brexit (GW uses their Dublin store on their stock) anyway but for most of these companies, unless its a quick email and a €10 fee to a chap hosting the documents and the address, its going to a lot of effort and I'm not sure how many are going to be bothered if this is a 'hobby' and not their livelyhood.

Even those that do this full time might be better off going back to the office than jumping through these hoops for the meagre living doing what they love.

Some of these companies are just getting back on their feet after the 'great web server crash' of 2024 as it is. This could just about be the final straw for them, I don't doubt.

**NAVARRO**

The_Real_Chris wrote:
Well part of the intent of these rules is to drive companies outside the block out of business or get them to move inside the block. When one can trade 'out' from the EU in one direction with the backing of a large internal market, and disadvantage stuff coming the other way, it's a win all round. In theory the UK could apply retaliatory rules, but still it isn't parity, those EU companies with the large internal market survive anyway, yours still die and the restrictions you put in are paid by your citizens who now have no choice but to buy from EU as your companies have gone.

Any country outside the EU would love to be able to trade inside the EU and enjoy the incentives of free trade within that block. One doesn't so.

Individuals and small business will simply stop trading because they cannot compete, its been happening already with US into UK, high shipping, tariffs/Customs hefty fees makes it incredibly undesirable to trade. It's becoming the same with EU after Brexit.

Even just sending postcards mail to the EU has proven difficult... imagine companies daily imports/exports.

Big companies will be untouched since they will move offices etc but local friendly small business will take the hit.

**BrookM**

Bad Squiddo has also announced pulling out of EU sales by the end of the month. I fear Statuesque may not be far behind then in announcing the same. To say that I am gutted is an understatement.