How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs

Posted by l-one-lone 15 hours ago

How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs(lectronz.com)

1112 points | 674 commentspage 8

blks 14 hours ago|

Are these rules actually that destructive, or are we witnessing astroturfing campaign?

Semaphor 13 hours ago||

My impression is that the rules make sense. For big companies. Sadly there are no limits whatsoever, so the same thing that’s easy for big companies, is essentially impossible for smaller ones.

I’ve seen several smaller bands in the EU stop sending merch to any country in the EU not their own, because they don’t know how to handle this.

akoboldfrying 13 hours ago||

TFA laid out exactly how destructive it is. It would wipe out the 50% of Lectronz sellers who sell < 10 items per year, and thus Lectronz itself, not to mention anyone else (e.g., artists) who only sell a handful of items a year.

What wasn't clear? Do you not find those claims plausible?

phazerfamza 12 hours ago||

aah Europe and the EU. If we don't know how to do something properly, we just create new rules and regulations, or simply just add another tax, that's the european way.

rramon 14 hours ago||

They'll get adequate feedback in the next elections If this doesn't get stopped, otherwise every business and their peers will likely vote for EU critic parties which means far left or far right.

seydor 12 hours ago|

The EU executive doesn't hold general elections

rramon 12 hours ago||

They're fanning Brexit-like situations all over the EU though. Those parties (e.g. the far right Afd in Germany) are EU critic and would rather have their own version of the EU with like minded countries. Or Varoufakis (far left, previously at Valve) in Greece for example, also EU critic.

Tomis02 6 hours ago||

It's worth messaging EU MPs or talking to them directly.

KronisLV 13 hours ago||

> a fragmented national model

These approaches will waste billions upon billions of Euros for no good reason. Having different VAT rates per-country already leads to overcomplication in so many places.

gekkekoe 13 hours ago||

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/...

enether 14 hours ago||

Sounds a bit like registering and reported to each country's VAT system, which almost no online creators do (even ones making hundreds of thousands of online subsription revenue)

hmpetleva 12 hours ago|

In my country I don't think you need to register until you make €85k for B2C for domestic payments.

If you need to register, all different VATs across EU are handled by a single VAT OSS registration.

My €20/mo accounting subscription includes it as standard (even though I don't need it).

cmiles8 14 hours ago||

Europe would rather regulate companies out of existence than grow them.

tk781 14 hours ago||

Is this killing the makers or the marketplace? Can the micro-entrepreneurs still list/sell via larger marketplaces? I can see how this is killing the micro-marketplace though.

andix 2 hours ago|

This regulation is utterly broken. The only way for a small business is to ignore it completely and hope for the best.

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