EU Shipping Pause

The Short Version

We're no longer able to ship to EU Member States due to a new EU law. The hope is this will change over the next few weeks/months but there are no guarantees. We will keep you updated if/when changes happen.


The Long Version

On the 12th of August 2026, the European Union put into action a new law called 'The Packaging and Packaging Waster Regulation' AKA. PPWR.

The PPWR's aim is to reduce non-recyclable waste and unnecessary packaging. This is done by reporting what packaging is used and what weight that packaging is for every order across a certain time period.

On the surface, that's probably something that we can all agree is fundamentally a good aim to have. Less waste is a good thing.

What's more, we like to think that we're actually pretty good at that already. We use recyclable materials throughout our packaging and the only time we use anything non recyclable is when we utilise foam (Plastazote LD33) or black wrap.

The foam is used with the idea that the box is used for storage of the product purchased and ideally not thrown away, and the black wrap is used when wood based goods are transported overseas and we need to protect the product against humidity changes.

But it doesn't matter what we use for packaging as there's a bigger problem.

 

The Problem

The EU have implemented this new law without a standardised reporting system.

That means that for each and every EU member state that we ship to, we need to do the following:

  1. Register with the country's regulatory body for PPWR.
  2. Organise a 3rd party Authorised Representative (AR) to act on our behalf within that country.
  3. Upload all our packaging data to that country.
  4. Report our orders to that country over time.

Now we could manage steps 1, 3, and 4. We actually have it a little easier as a smaller company as we don't have too much packaging to report. It would take us a week of admin to sort out the system but in principle it could be done.

But step 2 is the challenge.

Step 2 comes at a cost, and from the looks of it that cost is a yearly expense. Per country. For example, from our rudimentary research registering with Germany could cost us around €200 per year. If there's a similar fee across all EU Member States, we'll be paying €5400 a year.

That's before any additional packaging fees which get calculated based on the weight and type of packaging shipped, and before the admin time sink of organising all of that.

We recognise that there are some intermediary companies that may be able to help across all countries simultaneously, but we're not at a scale where that's financially feasible at this time.

 

The Solution?

The slim silver lining is that this regulation affects every country and business exporting products into the EU so there is already a lot of pushback on the challenges this is causing. Especially for smaller businesses.

We're hoping that the system gets rolled back and then reimplemented when there's a centralised system, but until then we've had to put a pause on shipments to the EU until we can find an affordable solution.

There are a few services we have in mind at the moment who may be able to help us ship to our main EU countries, however we can't guarantee when those systems will be put in place.

In the meantime, we're going to keep looking into solutions until we can finally reopen the store to our European customers.

If you happen to have any suggestions or solutions, please feel free to respond to this email and let us know.


Our Situation isn't Unique

Of course, this situation isn't just unique to us which is why we decided to write this lengthy email. If your favourite businesses have suddenly decided to stop shipping to the EU, this new regulation will be the reason and we thought it was worth explaining the details as best we can.

This regulation also applies between EU Member States, it's not even exclusive to countries outside of the EU. Trading in Europe for small businesses is going to be an incredible challenge over the next few weeks/months/years.

Fingers crossed the EU develop a solution soon or we're all going to feel the pinch!