Europe
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: RT, news-pravda:com, GB News, Fox, Breitbart, Daily Caller, OAN, sociable:co, citjourno:com, brusselssignal:eu, europesays:com, geo-trends:eu, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media. Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to any of the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.
view the rest of the comments
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
The legislation targets everything sold in the eu, no matter where the seller is from
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, using 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 that does the compliance validation part, so it's a question of connecting both things)
Very good point. I was wondering how the regulation could be enforced. With cooperating sellers, it's possible.
You are totally right, I read those words but didn't register their implications. If you ask me they should do something about importing dangerous goods as well. If something like a highly addictive drug that is produced in China gets popular here we are totally fucked as well, so better do something now when the only danger is baby and young children investing toxic chemicals.
Well, in a perfect world, it shouldn’t matter where in the world you are. Dangerous materials should be prohibited everywhere. Fair trade should be mandatory. But sadly, we are not there yet.
And amazon and eBay and any other new market place that springs up.
This is also one of the reasons Chinese crap is so cheap. EU products have to pass multiple safety checks before they can be sold, which can cost 5 digits or more that has to be added to the price. Chinese can just use the cheapest lead paint and asbestos they can get.
Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Maybe I needed a /s
China gets to skirt regulations and enjoy access to the European market and European companies have to bear the burden of the regulations. I like this regulation too; it's a genuinely good idea to keep kids healthy.