No More Ebay Sales To Eu Buyers After December 13, 2024

At least not by me, at any rate, unless there are major changes in eBay's implementation of the forthcoming GPSR.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/r...y-regulation

On the face of it, the legislation APPEARS to be targeted at sellers of industrial items, machinery, toys, appliances, etc., where safety could be considered a major concern. Well intentioned.

Problem: collectibles categories (including stamps, covers, postcards, coins, etc.) are currently NOT excluded from these requirements.

No seller is going to have the time to list manufacturer, contact information, safety guidelines, user manuals, etc... especially vintage items where either the manufacturers in question no longer exist (or were unknown), or never existed to begin with.

The only way for a seller of stamps to be compliant would be to make something up. "Product safety: don't eat the freaking stamp."

My guess is there will be a host of unhappy buyers in the EU come December 2024, when they discover that their favorite sellers will no longer sell to them.

Talk about overreaching legislation...

Here's a page with the excluded categories; I don't know why eBay just didn't link it in the article above.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/r...y-regulation

"Which categories are excluded from the GPSR?
The following products and categories are excluded from the General Product Safety Regulation:

Medicinal products
Food and feed products
Living animals and plants
Genetically modified organisms and microorganisms
Animal by-products
Plant protection products, also referred to as pesticides
Plant and animal products related to their reproduction
Antiques
Aircrafts
Travel equipment operated by a service provider to transport consumers
Products that need to be repaired, reconditioned, or recycled prior to being used and are clearly marked as such
To learn more about the entire list of excluded categories, check out Article 2 of the GPSR."

Correct, but stamps, coins, covers, postcards, etc. are not contained within the "Antiques" category hierarchy on eBay, therefore they are NOT excluded from the requirement.

In fact, the FAQ section at the bottom of the original page I linked to explicitly states that collectibles ARE included in this requirement:

Hi revenuecollector

The Ebay link appears to be broken, is there any chance you are able to repost a working version as I would be interested to see what Ebay are saying on GSPR.

There are product exemptions which includes 'antiques' and the Directive where the revised GSPR regulation is housed defines an antique as - products, such as collectors' items or works of art, in relation to which consumers cannot reasonably expect that they fulfil state-of-the-art safety standards.

Regards
Hamish

Revenuecollector it appears I posted after you had made the point about the issue being with Ebay hierachy. Noted. Hamish

Revised to add that the link is now in fact working without any issues!

And if "antiques" did apply to stamps, there are a whole boatload of stamps that wouldn't be eligible: new issues, etc.

As stated on the Ebay page provided by revenuecollector this is only valid for business sellers !!

Poorly drafted legislation at the very least.

They are making it impossible.

Is this really about protecting the consumer (safety) or it just about protectionism (putting up barriers to international trade)?

Do not blame legislators for Ebay incompetence

Stamps, etc. are not intended to be covered by the legislation unless you are selling current stamps that are intended as such.

Article 2 (scope) of the directive, section 2:
This Regulation does not apply to:
...
(i) antiques.

Article 3 (definitions)
For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions apply:
...
(28) 'antiques' means products, such as collectors' items or works of art, in relation to which consumers cannot reasonably expect that they fulfil state-of-the-art safety standards.

Preamble:

(18) Antiques, such as works of art or collectors' items are specific categories of products which cannot be expected to meet the safety requirements laid down by this Regulation, and should therefore be excluded from its scope. However, in order to prevent other products from being mistakenly considered as belonging to those categories, it is necessary to take into account that works of art are products created solely for artistic purposes, that collectors' items are of sufficient rarity and historical or scientific interest to justify their collection and preservation, and that antiques, if they are not already works of art or collectors' items or both, are of an extraordinary age. When assessing whether a product is an antique, such as a work of art or a collector's item, Annex IX to Council Directive 2006/112/EC could be taken into account.

Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (OJ L 347, 11.12.2006, p. 1):

Annex IX:
WORKS OF ART, COLLECTORS' ITEMS AND ANTIQUES, AS REFERRED TO IN POINTS (2), (3) AND (4) OF ARTICLE 311(1)
...
PART B

Collectors' items

(1)
Postage or revenue stamps, postmarks, first-day covers, pre-stamped stationery and the like, used, or if unused not current and not intended to be current (CN code 9704 00 00 );

It would have been simple for the Commission to create an exclusion for printed matter in the list of exemptions in the main body of the text. This should have gone beyond "collectors' items". In terms of protectionism, the thrust of safety legislation has been to increase protections - I'd expect the UK to do something similar if/when it revamps its legislation. A better example of protectionism is the application of US sales taxes to transactions involving overseas sellers who have been nowhere near the US.

On the one hand the whole lot moans about unfair competition and forgeries from China and low-wage countries that produce substandard products. But when legislation is introduced that implements standards that already apply in most European countries for local producers, that is protectionism?

The crap that is forbidden at home will be forbidden on international platforms.

Printed matter would open the door to abuse (use of inks on consumer products that contain toxic chemicals) and require definitions. The definition of collectables already existed.