Why We Don’t Ship to the EU: welcome to the GPSR
As a small business I’ve always tried to serve our customers wherever they are.
This has often been made complex due to laws or restrictions, or simply inefficiencies in other countries.
I do not ship to various countries due to legal restrictions:
- It is illegal to export ‘minerals’ to various sanctioned countries – whether or not my specimens would be counted is simply not worth the legal expenses to find out!
- I found a great number of parcels were returned from the RoI (Ireland) due to ‘incorrect customs codes’, despite the codes being correct, so I stopped shipping there.
- Italy was always a problem as their postal service never updated tracking on the parcels.
- Germany became trickier when they decided to enforce packaging guidelines. Not an impossibility, but a very small market for me.
However, due to recent regulatory changes in the European Union, I’ve completely stopped all EU shipping.
The reason lies in the European Union’s new General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), which came into effect in 2024.
This regulation introduces strict new rules for anyone selling consumer products in the EU regardless of the size of the business or the quantity of items sold.
Key requirements include:
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Appointing an EU-based “Responsible Person” to be legally accountable for product safety.
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Providing detailed compliance documentation for every product.
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Implementing traceability systems, even for small, handmade, or low-volume items.
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Mandatory product labeling that complies with EU standards.
As I sell rocks and minerals, this is effectively impossible. Were I a seller of only solder, or only cabochons, this may be viable, but unfortunately it simply is not for mineral specimens.
Realistically speaking, a mineral specimen may include other minerals that have not been identified, analysed, or tested – whether thats as inclusions, or secondary minerals on the surface. That alone makes it impossible to comply with the second and fourth points above.
The first point is also a complete impossibility – hey – random company, would you like to be responsible for 2000 natural products, some of which might be toxic or radioactive?
The quote(s) I got for 100 of the most common and safe products (solder, cabochons, and faceted stones) was far in excess of any entire years sales I have made to the EU since starting this business.
That’s before we consider traceability systems, compliance documentation, and product labelling.
The cost of legal representation, paperwork, and logistics would significantly raise prices and time per order, for a market which was less than 6% of total sales.
Unfortunately that simply isn’t a viable option and the EU can no longer be considered an accessible market.
If the EU decides to add small business exceptions or rules for minerals and fossils, I will of course look at reopening EU shipping.
Unfortunately, one of the first enquiries from the EU after these laws passed was from the National Museum of Denmark, so this really is a problem for both me, the UK business, and the EU as a whole.
Whether the GPSR is actually ever enforced is an entirely different story. Technically, any business outside the EU is meant to comply to it – but I’m not risking the fines.