eBay

dza-4617 · ‎07-12-2024

Hello,

I have read through the help articles and looked at the listing tools but I do not see an option to mark my products as supplied to the EU market before December 13, 2024. The GSPR rules clearly state that goods supplied before December 13th do not need to follow the rules, that is, anything that is listed on ebay right now would still be ok to sell after December 13th. It would seem that you should be able to list these goods after December 13th, marking them as supplied to the market before Dec 13th, assuming you can prove that in case of an inquiry.

I saw that at least one online marketplace like ebay has already provided an option to add to existing listings that there were supplied to the EU market before December 13, 2024, and that makes them exempt and it appears it applies to listings created after Dec 13th as well.

Any thoughts? There was some talk on the boards about adding the production date to the listing, but could not see anything apart from that.

rclark8449 · ‎07-12-2024

Yes i read that also but theres so many differing views on its meanings , theres so much grey its fog , No two sites have the same info , but i have seen this from ebay both in a response to questions and as an update to there info page , also with a promise of "no harm will come to you " even if you haven't filled out the boxes , just the item will be hidden for EU buyers , but will it just be Hidden full stop is the fear , i choose to go with what you are saying otherwise it would just be a blanket lock out of every thing, the only niggling things that come to me in the night are the placed on the market reference , does it mean once something has been for sale in Europe its ok or does it mean every time you put something on ebay it counts as a new item in its own right , so if you sell a book is it ok because it was available from 1930 or will it be stopped because you have just put it on ?

ett1954 · ‎07-12-2024

Official webinars I have seen define 'placed on the market' as being entered into the market place for use or sale. That is any item placed for sale or physically in stock in the EU (fulfilment centre, warehouse, etc.). Any item that arrives in the market place countries after December 13th must comply with GPSR.

If you are using a fulfilment centre or warehouse your records such as shipping, export, batch codes (which are required in the event of a recall) can be used to verify that these goods were already within the EU, EEA, EFTA and Northern Ireland prior to the date GPSR became effective.

rclark8449 · ‎07-12-2024

yes but what i dont understand and a lot of people dont , is do they mean the first time an item is placed on the market , like say a toy that was for sale in the 1960s and available in say france does that now have the rights already in place or does it mean every time you place the item on sale it becomes a new unknown item again , which does not make sense , theres some middle ground over the older items that cant comply but were for sale and deemed safe then but its not clear

dza-4617 · ‎07-12-2024

Exactly the same issue I am pondering right now. I understand it would be up to the seller to provide proof that item entered the market before Dec 13th, but ebay as a marketplace I guess should be free of obligation to provide sellers with an ability to put such an item in the market, with that item being clearly labeled as supplied before Dec 13th. After all, even now it is the seller who assumes all responsibility for the listing, not ebay. Ebay has their own requirements to follow GSPR, but if the law says supplied before Dec 13th, providing a clear exemption to listings before Dec 13th would seem to be in line?

If items are listed right now, they are already available in the market, especially if hypothethically you would have a warehouse in the EU and these goods were already there. Heck, if you have goods in the UK that you can prove where physically in the UK before brexit, these should still count as being supplied to the EU market before Dec 13th, right?

If following the GSPR strictly, none of the available goods, even brand new factory sealed follow these rules as for instance, a lof of them are not supplied with instructions in all EU languages. I can't imagine manufacturers or big box sellers repacking these goods after Dec 13th, or suppling photocopied instructions in buyer's language, seems like utter nonsense.

ett1954 · ‎07-12-2024

"suppling photocopied instructions in buyer's language, seems like utter nonsense." - utter nonsense it may be but that is how the regulations read today. All safety instructions must be in the language of where the product is offered to sale; plus a 'responsible EU person' must be contracted as a representative. If you are selling to the EU or other countries aligned with GPSR (EEA, EFTA and NI) then any goods entering these markets must comply.

"If following the GSPR strictly, none of the available goods, even brand new factory sealed follow these rules as for instance, a lof of them are not supplied with instructions in all EU languages." - This is one reason GPSR has been introduced; the previous safety regulations were not robust for today's business sectors and online commerce was identified as being one of the biggest areas of non-compliance. Online platforms are being required to take some responsibility and the feeling is the import country's customs will be responsible for 'policing'.

I feel that the requirements for many small businesses, especially those selling 'one-off' items will find the bureaucracy requirements uneconomical to implement and will simply stop selling to these countries out of necessity; myself included.

vinylscot · ‎08-12-2024

The "placed on the market" bit, on the surface, looks pretty straightforward, and comforting, but does really need some clarification.

I sell second hand vinyl records. Obviously, everything I have listed at the moment has been "supplied to the EU market" prior to 13th December, as they are visible now, five days prior to that date.

But, does the phrase refer to a copy of say "Sgt Peppers" from 1967, being available to the market prior to that date, as there are many copies available at the moment. Or, is my own copy not treated as "available to the market", prior to that date, if I don't list it until the 14th (even if it was manufactured in 1967)?

In short, does the date apply to the original manufacture of the item (and its placement on the EU market), or does it apply to the date a particular example of the item is put on the market?

(I appreciate, records not released until after that date will come under the regulations, as they were not available to the EU market prior to the 13th.)

ett1954 · ‎08-12-2024

"In short, does the date apply to the original manufacture of the item (and its placement on the EU market), or does it apply to the date a particular example of the item is put on the market?"

The information given by the UK Export Academy indicated that it refers to the date that the product enters the EU market area; not the date the product was manufactured. What will happen to listings on the 13th December? .......... Your guess is as good as mine!

ojewellery · ‎08-12-2024

I originally did a bulk update to my listings to add the line product available to the EU prior to December 2024. I am reassured by eBays stance that they wont be banning sellers without warning but I don't think avoiding having an appointed person works as a medium/ long term business strategy.

I've got so frustrated by its varied cross platform interpretation, that I've bitten the bullet and paid for an appointed EU representative and will sell everything as the importer/ manufacturer. Its a one year decision factored into my numbers whilst the dust settles. I've spoken with numerous companies so I'll share my thoughts....

I started early on Wednesday 27th November with the four named companies within the seller centre GPSR page. My category is precious metal and gemstone jewellery so low risk products, a catalogue of around 800 items:

Webinterpret
Cert-Rep
Obelis
Eucerep

Webinterpret I filled in an online form to book a call, I promptly received an email to confirm someone would be in touch, followed by a confirm your subscription to our emails email – a week has passed no contact

Cert Rep had simple pricing on their website so I didn’t make contact 1190Euro/ year for under 5000 items

Obelis came back promptly to an enquiry their fees are 95 Euro/ month plus 750 Euro deposit (refundable over time) plus a one off fee of 1730 Euro/ ten products which includes some testing (if they deem it necessary) – I don’t think any is necessary making them very pricey for my items

Eucerep I filled in an online form and received email confirmation someone would be in touch soon – I’ve not heard anything

In parallel I contacted the top few companies who came up in a google search:

EUcompliancepartner.com who have a $250/ year flat rate

ia-group.ltd who have a £420/ year charge for low risk products

certification-experts.com who I filled in forms for but haven’t given me any pricing yet

take-e-way.de who I filled in forms for but again no response yet

VATai.com who are offering a deal of 100Euro/ for eBay sellers and say they’ve done some work with eBay Japan and appear to have reasonable reviews for some of their other services. You need to go on live chat to get this deal as the advertised price is 400Euro.

If I was just eBay, I'd have gone with VATai at the equivalent of £6.40/ month, for peace of mind to not have anything restricted and keep trading to NI and EU. As I'm multichannel I’ve gone with EUcompliancepartner and I’m filling in their templates to send to them to get my products approved prior to uploading details to eBay/ other platforms. I don't think its coincidence that since adding their details to Etsy, late yesterday, I've covered the annual cost in sales generated to EU already.

I'm not happy about having to pay out but I consider it a lesser of evils to avoid contracting my business. When EPR Germany came in, I contemplated switching off Germany but the 39 Euro/ year brings in a good few thousand a year - growing at a faster rate than my domestic sales year on year. Also sales had a significant jump more than pre EPR due to so many people turning off.

dza-4617 · ‎09-12-2024

It also boils down to what you sell and who/where it was manufactured. I sell items manufactured by a single company that is still around and does have an EU unit, so no issue with filling the data. What I am worried about, is that at some point in the future, this data is going to be used to do a mass purge of small sellers from marketplaces as ebay and other marketplaces will probably sell or provide this data to manufacturers who will then in turn go back to ebay and say they do not recognize the goods sold by a particular seller and ebay will remove those listings and/or demand invoices for proof of purchase. This is going to work in much the same way as vero does now...

Another thing are those instructions in the language of the buyer. The wording of this is also vague. If you offer shipping to all EU countries, are you required to have instructions available in all languages at point of sale, at the moment the buyer makes the purchase or when you deliver the item?

wyntersemporium · ‎11-12-2024

Not sure if folksy did the same. Love folksy outdone eBay yesterday.
folksy say to leave the postage blank and it comes up as doesn’t deliver here.
Not too sure about Amazon or Depop.

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

hilarysbiz · ‎12-12-2024

Just what I'm wondering....! If an item listed before december 13th doesn't sell - when it renews later on - does that then count as newly listed after december 13th???

Simple question - does anyone out there know ????!

dza-4617 · ‎12-12-2024

A different marketplace claims that it does, since they cannot discern which is which.

That being said, the items currently listed should not be affected, though ebay should have provided some kind of an option for sellers to mark items as previously available in the market. Supposedly under the new law it would be legal to list items without gspr requirements if they were available before Dec 13th. They do not have to be physically listed before Dec 13th, but then again, it seems ebay does not care.