Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
DiscussionsFolio Society Devotees
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1English-bookseller
There is a general belief in the West that the free circulation of the written word is a fundamental and very important right. In the UK for example the printed word does not suffer our horrible VAT consumption tax of 20% at all.
There are a number of often quite small UK bookshops that take advantage of that right and sell both new and used Folio Society books to a surprising number of other countries around the world.
This ability to sell books so widely and without restriction or censorship - as one of those booksellers who does that - is a source of joy and profit to me. I treasure overseas orders and find it fascinating just how many people abroad can enjoy reading often quite complex English prose.
But the world in which we can sell to is at least for smaller booksellers and publishers going to get a bit smaller as a result of new EPR legislation in France and Germany and which will probably extend both to other EU counties and elsewhere, including North America.
Note that I am only starting to get to grips with this new tax and no doubt better informed members of this forum can assist our knowledge.
Put simply, EPR rules require those booksellers (and all other businesses - it's not limited to books) which sell into another country to register with regulatory organisations in the importer's country and pay an annual fee each year if they wish to sell goods such as books into that market.
The fees paid over in a particular country are scaled with some reference to the volume of orders to that country - but generally these fees are charged to provide a new source of income to 'Environmental organisations', and thereby used to encourage more re-cycling of waste materials such as the packaging in which we post our book orders.
The legislation is new. UK booksellers are trying to understand it and how best to comply and indeed whether they should comply.
I assume that The Folio Society - depending on its sales in any particular country - will probably register in all affected Western countries and just pay the registration fees and compliance costs required. They have the resources and sales to justify that.
But for small UK bookshops which only have a handful of say French and German book orders each year, it is a different matter. So my world is going to be a smaller place ... which is not my idea of progress!
There are a number of often quite small UK bookshops that take advantage of that right and sell both new and used Folio Society books to a surprising number of other countries around the world.
This ability to sell books so widely and without restriction or censorship - as one of those booksellers who does that - is a source of joy and profit to me. I treasure overseas orders and find it fascinating just how many people abroad can enjoy reading often quite complex English prose.
But the world in which we can sell to is at least for smaller booksellers and publishers going to get a bit smaller as a result of new EPR legislation in France and Germany and which will probably extend both to other EU counties and elsewhere, including North America.
Note that I am only starting to get to grips with this new tax and no doubt better informed members of this forum can assist our knowledge.
Put simply, EPR rules require those booksellers (and all other businesses - it's not limited to books) which sell into another country to register with regulatory organisations in the importer's country and pay an annual fee each year if they wish to sell goods such as books into that market.
The fees paid over in a particular country are scaled with some reference to the volume of orders to that country - but generally these fees are charged to provide a new source of income to 'Environmental organisations', and thereby used to encourage more re-cycling of waste materials such as the packaging in which we post our book orders.
The legislation is new. UK booksellers are trying to understand it and how best to comply and indeed whether they should comply.
I assume that The Folio Society - depending on its sales in any particular country - will probably register in all affected Western countries and just pay the registration fees and compliance costs required. They have the resources and sales to justify that.
But for small UK bookshops which only have a handful of say French and German book orders each year, it is a different matter. So my world is going to be a smaller place ... which is not my idea of progress!
2cwl
It does seem that we are currently moving backwards as governments look inwards instead of outwards. This is also what happens when macroeconomic policy gets left to politicians and not left in the hands of economists and a case of justifying any new tax by labelling it “green”, regardless of additional costs to all parties concerned. I am no rabid all-tax-is-theft right-winger, by the way. Who knew that import-export expertise was going to once again become a viable and growing career option?
3SF-72
From what I understand, this particular kind of / aspect of EPR is dressed as an attempt to do something about waste, and is in fact yet another way of pulling money out of people's pockets. Because those who actually keep selling here will have to factor this into their prices. However, many will just have to stop selling to my country. One of the booksellers I regularly buy from (I'm in Germany) just stated that they currently can't sell here because of this. Due to the consequences of Brexit and the removal of any customs threshold, which made non-EU purchases even more of a hassle than before with regard to customs, I've already been using a forwarding service. So it doesn't directly affect me (in this case at least), but it really makes me angry. German households are already paying a fee for our waste. I don't see why non-EU sellers should pay for my waste, too.
