New EU regulation makes cross-border EU sales harder for small businesses

The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation began to apply on 12 Aug., replacing the previous Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

The regulation’s requirements put small business owners in a particularly difficult position. Even if a business owner sells modest volumes to several EU countries, they must investigate their obligations in each export country separately, join a producer association in each destination country – where such membership may be mandatory – to arrange waste management and recycling, and pay the required fees.

This multi-window system can be an insurmountable obstacle for small business owners, both in terms of time and cost.

One-stop-shop solution

Tiina Toivonen, Legislative Affairs Manager at Suomen Yrittäjät, the Finnish SME association, describes the new obligations as “unsustainable, especially for smaller companies”.

“Many businesses now have to ask whether exporting or running an online shop within the EU still makes economic sense. The new regulation does nothing to promote the free movement of goods in the single market,” Toivonen says.

She says solutions to the problem must be found rapidly at EU level.

“The most sensible approach would be a one-stop-shop service through which a company could meet all its waste management obligations in a single process. There must also be exemptions from payment obligations for low-volume sales and smaller companies.”

Minister to HS: disproportionate bureaucracy

Minister of Climate and the Environment Sari Multala (National Coalition Party) called in Helsingin Sanomat for the regulation to be amended.

She says the bureaucracy resulting from the regulation “can be completely disproportionate for small business owners”.

Multala hopes that the Commission’s forthcoming circular economy legislative proposal will ease the situation for distance sellers.

“If it were possible to make producer responsibility payments through a one-stop-shop model – meaning companies could fulfil their obligations for all member states in a single transaction – that would of course be welcome for smaller companies, and why not for larger ones too,” Multala told HS.

In Finland, the authority responsible for overseeing the application of the regulation is the Finnish Supervisory Agency. Senior Inspector Tuomo Aunola, speaking to Helsingin Sanomat, shares Multala’s concern about the new obligations and complexity involved in selling to EU countries.

“I fully understand that the regulation can seem unfair from the perspective of small companies. It sets no minimum threshold for company size,” Aunola tells HS.

“The worst-case scenario is the regulation forcing a business to register in every single EU country to operate correctly.”

Are you a Suomen Yrittäjät member yet? Read more about member benefits and advantages!