I’m very sad to say that, as it stands, as of 13th December 2024 I will no longer be able to sell to EU-based customers. This is because of the new General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR).
This is a devastating blow as I have many lovely and loyal EU customers who I have really enjoyed getting to know. Please read the post below, which explains more about this.
Why I’ve had to make this decision
I’ve faced many challenges with selling to the EU and it’s gotten increasingly harder. It started with the digital VAT changes (why I manually email my patterns to you), the licence fee I now need to pay for my packaging in order to ship physical products to Germany, and then the changes to duties that came in a few years ago (which now means I need to send my EU parcels duties unpaid – resulting in a customs charge for you).
Unfortunately, this latest directive would require a huge amount of changes to how I run my business – as well as a heap of additional paperwork and expenses that I am just not in a position to be able to achieve! It ultimately means that I can no longer sell any products to the EU and Northern Ireland. This includes physical products, digital products and workshop bookings.
If you’re a UK-based maker yourself who sells to the EU and you haven’t heard about these changes – then I recommend taking a read of the Folksy blog. It’s the best article I’ve found on the subject and sets things out very clearly.
I’ve held off making an announcement as I wanted to make sure I’d understood it all correctly and I think I have. As you can imagine, the information available is not clear but my understanding is it affects all of my products including digital.
I’m really hopeful that it’s not forever. It’s possible that there will be further clarification made available or that there will be adjustments made to support small and micro businesses like myself.
What does this mean for you as a customer?
To protect myself from any potential fines I have turned off sales to the EU and Northern Ireland on my website. This also relates to my Etsy store.
I’d like to reiterate to my EU beaders that it’s not goodbye! We can still keep in touch – if you haven’t already, then please do join my Facebook group community. I’m hopeful that we can also connect through collaborations with bead shops in the future.
If anything changes, then I will let you know! I’m so, so grateful for all your support.
x Chloe