EU to ban dozens of toxic substances in children’s toys
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The article mentions aliexpress and wish. Those things are not sold in the EU. They are sold in China. The customer imports them directly from China. The customer is circumventing the regulations and should be aware of that.
When the EU changed the rules of VAT on imports so that everything imported by consumers was charged VAT no matter the price paid and set up a system where foreign sellers could themselves charge the VAT on payment and then send it to the appropriate EU nation (otherwise ALL of their consignements would get stuck at customs waiting for the buyer to pay VAT) AliExpress immediatelly implemented the necessary elements and became part of that system even though they're a Chinese company.
The point being that if the EU authorities want to, they can put the responsability for proving compliance on the entities selling those products to European customers (along with stiff penalties if they try to rig the system) and everything else just gets stuck at the border untill the proper paperwork (nowadays it would be digital documents) gets provided.
There's already a system in place that any foreign company which wants to export to the EU must follow to certify their products (this is how they get the CE mark. check the services of TÜV Rheinland for example) so the most straightforward approach would involve the likes of AliExpress themselves having to check compliance and digitally provide the necessary documentation (or, more likely, the reference code for that documentation at a central database) to keep the stuff sold through them from being stuck on customs and risk be kicked out of the system if they let non-compliant products thorough (and all their shit then gets stuck at customs).
The point being that the whole part of the system were stuff getting imported by importers and consumers alike goes through customs is already in place, it's just that they're not stopping and examining everything, but they can (at the cost of every consumer order out there getting stuck in customs for months) and the last time the EU said that it was exactly what they would do if foreign sellers didn't withold VAT at the source and send it to the EU, everybody complied, so that can probably be used for things like Regulatory Compliance (which itself also has a whole system of certification in place that's used for products to get the CE mark)
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Big fucking surprise. Never trust Chinese trash, even if you do obsess over filling your home with shit that never works, never impose that shit on someone else. Neglectful idiot consumers harm the environment and society, and now children.
The fact that Amazon isn't fined to Mercury and back for continue to sell/display unsafe children toys is mindboggling.
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The fact that Amazon isn't fined to Mercury and back for continue to sell/display unsafe children toys is mindboggling.
"it's not us, it's our sellers!"
Maybe I'd accept that if they weren't gobbling an enormous percentage of every transaction and storing it in their own warehouses.
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"it's not us, it's our sellers!"
Maybe I'd accept that if they weren't gobbling an enormous percentage of every transaction and storing it in their own warehouses.
"It's not us, it's our business model!"
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Then the law should go after the intermediaries (i.e. Amazon, Wish, AliExpress) who are making available those products in Europe.
(And you can be sure even the likes of AliExpress will comply: when the EU enacted a "Everything imported by consumers now has VAT" rule with a "Foreign sellers can register in an EU system were they charge the country-appropriate VAT at the time of sale and send the VAT themselves to that EU country" they immediatly adopted that system to avoid having everything they sold stopped at the border and held until VAT was paid)
Today the importers are legally responsible. however the chance to get caught is miniscule. Reading EU's rapex reports, often it is even unknown where the product was sold.
Even the responsible importers can be caught off guard if the samples are good quality, but after some time the supplier switches to toxic quality.
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The fact that Amazon isn't fined to Mercury and back for continue to sell/display unsafe children toys is mindboggling.
what? you think Amazon should be fined for distributing "babies first hat making kits feat. real mercury"?
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the thing that bothers me is that they had to be banned by a multinational regulation institute, and weren't just dropped by companies themselves using this rarity called common fucking sense and decency.
"common sense and decency" are considered cost-drivers in the capitalist manual and therefor to be avoided at nearly all cost.
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"it's not us, it's our sellers!"
Maybe I'd accept that if they weren't gobbling an enormous percentage of every transaction and storing it in their own warehouses.
If they take a X% cut from the transaction, they should at least shoulder X% of the fine.
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When the EU changed the rules of VAT on imports so that everything imported by consumers was charged VAT no matter the price paid and set up a system where foreign sellers could themselves charge the VAT on payment and then send it to the appropriate EU nation (otherwise ALL of their consignements would get stuck at customs waiting for the buyer to pay VAT) AliExpress immediatelly implemented the necessary elements and became part of that system even though they're a Chinese company.
The point being that if the EU authorities want to, they can put the responsability for proving compliance on the entities selling those products to European customers (along with stiff penalties if they try to rig the system) and everything else just gets stuck at the border untill the proper paperwork (nowadays it would be digital documents) gets provided.
There's already a system in place that any foreign company which wants to export to the EU must follow to certify their products (this is how they get the CE mark. check the services of TÜV Rheinland for example) so the most straightforward approach would involve the likes of AliExpress themselves having to check compliance and digitally provide the necessary documentation (or, more likely, the reference code for that documentation at a central database) to keep the stuff sold through them from being stuck on customs and risk be kicked out of the system if they let non-compliant products thorough (and all their shit then gets stuck at customs).
The point being that the whole part of the system were stuff getting imported by importers and consumers alike goes through customs is already in place, it's just that they're not stopping and examining everything, but they can (at the cost of every consumer order out there getting stuck in customs for months) and the last time the EU said that it was exactly what they would do if foreign sellers didn't withold VAT at the source and send it to the EU, everybody complied, so that can probably be used for things like Regulatory Compliance (which itself also has a whole system of certification in place that's used for products to get the CE mark)
Very good point. I was wondering how the regulation could be enforced. With cooperating sellers, it's possible.
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If they take a X% cut from the transaction, they should at least shoulder X% of the fine.
Let them pay the whole amount and then claim it back from the sellers.
Maybe then they'll actually do some checking about who their sellers are...
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So European companies are forced to comply with this, but Chinese companies get a free pass to ignore... Wonderful.
You are being downvoted but that's exactly what will happen.
There is little to no control on products sold in Chinese market places
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Let them pay the whole amount and then claim it back from the sellers.
Maybe then they'll actually do some checking about who their sellers are...
That would even be better.
