I hope I am wrong about this: the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation requires anyone shipping packaged goods to register with the authorities in each country they ship to. That is no problem for Amazon, which can easily register with 27 different authorities. But for small producers, it is an impossibly large bureaucratic burden. Prices in the smaller Scandinavian markets are already much higher, partly because many small shops and producers from the rest of the EU are unwilling to deal with the hassle of shipping there. This will now get even worse.
For example, I bought this wooden music player from a German micro-producer. It is built to last, and my kids can play Swedish Pippi Longstocking stories and German public-broadcasting podcasts for children all day long without any subscription. The device even got better over time: the inventor started selling USB-C kits that let me upgrade it myself with nothing more than a drill.
Purchases like this will now become a thing of the past. The EU single market is being reduced to a playground for Amazon and other corporate giants.
I know that Scandinavian politics has historically included strong EU-sceptical currents on the left. But I hope someone there understands that an exception for small sellers and producers or a single European registry is desperately needed. Without one, this regulation is effectively a gift to the large-player oligopoly.
Leave a Reply