We just got some very well made phishing mails mentioning our LUCID registration ID. One of them addressed to our email used for Amazon. Of cause all this information can be scraped from public sources. The only striking things are, that the sender was not actually the „Stiftung Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister“ but some small trading company who probably had their mail-server misconfigured and that it comes in October instead of December, when reports and renewals are made.
We do have a recycling contract for our (product+transport) packaging and everything is properly registered with LUCID.
General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) will take effect in two month. It mandates that we display a lot of information about product safety&care and the manufacturer+(EU) importer in the same place as the product details. Sadly our shop software doesn’t allow for and kind of manufacturer details. To prepare for it, we have written an extension for our shop software.
There is now an additional tab „Manufacturer“ for all products. It lists who the original manufacturer is. It also shows what party is responsible for product safety in the EU …and it contains a copy of the safety and care instructions we have prepared in English and German.
In preparation of the upcoming GPSR regulation in December, we have changed the our product packaging printing software.
changes made
For imported products the packaging will now also show the full address and email of the manufacturer (in addition to our own company address). For EU products the barcode label will now also show the full address of the manufacturer, in case the manufacturer doesn’t already include it in their packaging and for products we have in stock with existing packaging.
Next steps
There will be further modifications needed. Particularly to the online shop software. We have researched what needs to be done and will start writing a custom extension after returning H-Con.
DHL is not longer shipping to HAITI because public order has collapsed. So in turn we can’t either.
DHL announcement:
Sehr geehrte Kund:innen und Geschäftspartner:innen, in Haiti ist die öffentliche Ordnung weitgehend zusammengebrochen und angesichts der eskalierenden Gewalt wurde der Ausnahmezustand ausgerufen. Daher möchten wir Sie darüber informieren, dass wir in der aktuellen Situation den Versand von Warensendungen nach Haiti bis auf weiteres aussetzen, da wir die Leistungserbringung nicht sicherstellen können.Folgende Vertragsprodukte sind hiervon betroffen und werden ab dem Einliefertag 15.03.2024 wieder an den Absender retourniert: … Wir bitten Sie, in der aktuellen Situation von Nachforschungen Abstand zu nehmen.
DHL changed the number of days a parcel from Germany takes to reach it’s destination. Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia are not 1 day faster. As expected, Great Britain takes 1 day longer due to the (long postponed) new customs processing gradually starting in February.
Starting next week the first new border checks for exports from the EU (where we are) to the UK will start. At first only affecting a small number of products.
A much larger number of checks will start in April and ramp up until November. This will slow down border traffic.
As a consequence, we urge UK customers to place planned orders of toys at YiffyToys within the next few days. So they can cross the UK border before all of this starts. Remember: Everything you can buy in our shop is actually in stock and can be shipped right away.
Because we have to increase the shipping fees to Austria in order to offset some of the cost of this, we want to give some more background information regarding the Austrian recycling of packaging.
Background
We are a tiny German business. We pay for the recycling of all cardboard and plastic packaging we ship. That is not overly expensive and we do so for a long time now.
TL:DR – Austria removed all „small business“ thresholds and requires non-Austrian EU-businesses to name a representative in addition to licensing the packaging for recycling.
Long version
With the Austrian „Verordnung des Bundesministers für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft über die Vermeidung und Verwertung von Verpackungsabfällen und bestimmten Warenresten (Verpackungsverordnung 2014)“ (Austria love long names just like Germany does.) starting 1. Jänner 2023 (1st of January) we are forced to have an agent in Austria (as defined in § 16b). That agent is to act as our representative in matters of recyling of packaging.
This is required because of: „§ 16b.(1) Versandhändler gemäß § 13g Abs. 1 Z 5 AWG 2002 haben für ab dem 1. Jänner 2023 in Österreich in Verkehr gesetzte Verpackungen einen Bevollmächtigten für ausländische Versandhändler zu bestellen.“
That definition reads: „Versandhändler, die keinen Sitz und keine Niederlassung im örtlichen Geltungsbereich dieses Bundesgesetzes haben und die Verpackungen oder Waren oder Güter in Verpackungen in Österreich an einen privaten Letztverbraucher im Rahmen des Fernabsatzes im Sinne des § 5a KSchGübergeben.“
The naming of that representative even has to be notarised because of „§ 16b.(1) Abs.2 Pt 4 4. Die Bestellung erfolgt durch eine beglaubigte Vollmacht in deutscher oder englischer Sprache“
Why this law is badly written
There are no provisions for small busineses. There are no provisions for small amounts of packaging. There are no distictions between EU and 3rd country businesses. Yes, that part of the law makes no sense whatsoever. We are just glad that Austria laws are written in a language we can actually read. With 27 EU countries, this could be so much worse.
We do pay for recycling all cardboard and plastic we buy or import. We do send proof of the amount we licensed to the German authorities.
Sadly, there is no European licensing. That’s obviously bad with 27 EU countries.
We have absolutely no problem doing the same for the cardboard and plastic our shipment to Austria make up. It’s a tiny amount. Licensing it is not overly expensive and after serveral weeks of research, easy to do. The price is mainly made up of an administrative fee per license. The actual amount of licensed material is mere cents. Just even more yearly bureaucracy to handle.
The problem
The problem is not licensing our materials for recycling in Austria. The problem is that Austria demands a company in Austria to act as a representative. „§ 16b Verpackungsverordnung 2014 „Bevollmächtigter für ausländische Versandhändler (Verpackung)“..“
There is no minimum or threshold anymore They demany this the very moment any business sends a single paper envelope to Austria. There was a Minimum business size called „Kleinstabgeber“ but is it discontinued 2022-12-31.
And enlisting with any Austrian representative („Bevollmächtigter“) is really expensive. While the recycling makes up 40-80ct (mainly due to a minimum administrative fee), we would have to charge an additional 8€ per delivery to Austria to offset this.
Changes
Insted of 8,8€, we will raise the shipping prices for Austrian customers by 3.10€ per parcel to offset a part of this additional cost. Starting with February update to shipping prices because DHL lowered it’s monthly „energy surcharge“ for German destinations. All non-recurring cost for registration will thus be paid by us (and thus by all customers collectively) and the recurring cost is distributed based on the amount of parces to Austria we shipped before the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain issues and global recession.
We have added the new 2021 DHL prices. Like every year, all DHL prices have become ever so slightly more expensive. As the (temporarily reduced) German VAT rate goes back up to 19%, so do all the EU shipping fees. non-EU exports obviously don’t include VAT.
Brexit
While GB has always been a „premium delivery only“ country, sadly it now also includes +4.49€ just for GB. But at least the +19% German VAT are gone now. They are however replaced by 20% UK VAT payed at delivery and we are required to incur a minimum order size of 135£ to comply with HMRC changes in VAT rules independent of BREXIT. That is, as soon as DHL accepts parcels for the UK and Ireland again.
Germany
For Germany the +0.10€ for Maut get an additional +0.01€ for the new CO2 tax.
