Sales at the German site have been suspended!? Why is this news so strange...

Many sellers have recently come to ask what the new German packaging law that came into effect on January 1 is.

Let’s take a chronological look at the origins of the new packaging law.

Sellers first learned about Germany’s new packaging law from an email sent by Amazon to sellers. Let’s take a look at the original text of the email first.

In the email, Amazon pointed out that it strongly recommends that everyone complete all preparations before the new regulations are officially implemented on January 1, 2019, otherwise they will not be able to enter warehouses and sell in Germany.

This news came into the sellers' field of vision after being widely publicized by the media in early December. However, when collecting information, Xiaofenshen thought carefully that this incident happened too suddenly, which was somewhat inconsistent with Amazon's usual style of confrontation with the government.

Think about the time when VAT was implemented in Europe, Amazon took a whole year to enforce it. This time the consequences of the packaging law are as serious as VAT. Products cannot be sold without it. However, the time from the news breaking to its implementation was too short.

Think positively

Since the news cannot be confirmed now, it is always a good idea for us to be prepared for both situations. On the one hand, we should register and report the packaging data according to the requirements of the email, and on the other hand, we should be careful when we are asked to pay money.

If the email is verified to be authentic, the new packaging law requires manufacturers or retailers to register and apply for a license from a special government agency (Zentrale Stelle) when selling products containing packaging (including outer packaging, final retail packaging, shipping material packaging, etc.) to register the weight, type and material of the product packaging.

Of course, registration is not the only way to solve the problem. This packaging law is an emergency solution established after years of controversy and discussion in the face of Germany's current severe packaging waste environment.

The German government is counting on this policy to promote domestic packaging waste recycling rates and to prevent retailers and manufacturers from using unnecessary packaging as much as possible. So I believe that government agencies will definitely screen and review the applications received.

Using packaging made of recyclable materials, or packaging that is as little and simple as possible, these are what German government agencies want to see. I believe that it is not difficult to get the application approved. All you need to do is complete the application and regularly provide feedback on packaging data and recycling data.

There are so many reversals now, and we have access to more and more information, and it is becoming more and more difficult to identify the authenticity. It is really necessary to repeatedly verify everything and consider multiple possibilities.