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A comment on How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs.

Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by Robin_f on Monday August 24, 2026 @09:41AM (#49419663)
This is actively preventing me from sending packages to other countries as a maker. No matter how small the risk is, I don't want to risk a 5000 euro fine for sending a small amount of packages to other EU countries.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by dgellow on Monday August 24, 2026 @10:08AM (#49420026)
Really sorry you’re experiencing this, that whole regulation rollout is a complete mess. The leadership should be sacked for such an incompetent regulation, it’s insane how much troubles they are creating for small businesses.

Another small business owner reported their experience in this Reddit thread, looks really bad: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1vrz88a/comment/p4i...

I’m as pro-EU as one can get but that’s a mistake we should solve asap

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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by contravariant on Monday August 24, 2026 @11:47AM (#49421469)
The main reason I'm not particularly pro EU is the following.

How would we even sack the leadership?

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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by RandomLensman on Monday August 24, 2026 @12:29PM (#49422213)
Who is the leadership? The Council - then it would be national elections etc for the individual national representatives; the Commission - then it would be the European Parliament.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by contravariant on Monday August 24, 2026 @05:10PM (#49425891)
Requiring a 2/3 majority from the European Parliament seems a bit like a theoretical option more than anything. Even if it did (almost) happen once.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by criddell on Monday August 24, 2026 @11:18AM (#49421014)
Do you send them as your business or as yourself? If it's the latter, then I would consider forming a business to take on the risk. That's not free either, but think of it as insurance.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by thesimon on Monday August 24, 2026 @07:30PM (#49427234)
Can't comment on all European jurisdictions obviously, but a 1 person LLC/Ltd. is not a great shield in Germany. Usually they'll still consider the owner/director liable because they were making those executive decisions.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by graemep on Monday August 24, 2026 @10:37AM (#49420435)
Some people did the same when VATMOSS was introduced.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by jeltz on Monday August 24, 2026 @11:27AM (#49421140)
And those people were idiots. MOSS was trivial to implement and an improvement of what was there before. I implemented it myself for our company.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by graemep on Monday August 24, 2026 @01:33PM (#49423203)
Not far small businesses with very small numbers of cross border sales.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by catigula on Monday August 24, 2026 @09:45AM (#49419720)
Do you not cross the street given the risk of being hit by a bus?
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by sokoloff on Monday August 24, 2026 @09:49AM (#49419765)
Fortunately, buses are not invisible and you can look for a bus before crossing a street to gauge and control your risk of being struck by one.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by Hizonner on Monday August 24, 2026 @10:17AM (#49420141)
... but you can still fail to notice one, and you can gauge and to some degree control your risk of being fined.

In fact, if you sell 10 hobby prototype boards to other hobbyists, you probably have a higher risk of getting hit by a bus on the way to the post office than you do of being fined.

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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by tygon on Monday August 24, 2026 @04:58PM (#49425768)
Schrodinger's Bus: You do not know if you will be hit until you are already in the street. I feel like there is some promise in naming a band this, but it is unfortunate it so often is what people have to deal with when bringing an item to market.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by throw-the-towel on Monday August 24, 2026 @09:57AM (#49419862)
Umm akchully, not crossing a highway to avoid being hit is a perfectly sane course of action.
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by fitsumbelay on Monday August 24, 2026 @10:07AM (#49420000)
except he said "street" not "highway"
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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by x0x0 on Monday August 24, 2026 @12:28PM (#49422191)
Sorry, that's a really poor analogy.

Because there's a handful of companies (lectronz, seeedstudio, ebay, etc) that have the full shipment lists. So the compliance agencies don't have to go after individual business records one business at a time; they can go to probably fewer than 10 businesses and find the suggested mass rule breaking with a sql join.

See also the national tax agencies with NACE codes (euro version of NAICS).

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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by anigbrowl on Monday August 24, 2026 @05:14PM (#49425939)
No matter how small the risk is

That's just an excuse then. Register with whatever local authority in your country handles these things and in the unlikely event you get a grumpy letter just send them a copy of your registration documents.

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Re:How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs by Robin_f on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @02:50AM (#49444960)
It's clear you didn't read the article. As its not about registration, but rather the absurd costs of doing all this for small businesses.
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