15/08/2026
Who else has turned off EU shipping on their websites/shops? We have had to sadly for Downland Crafts and Downland Handmade.
Small business owners including artists, designers and craft makers across Ireland have suspended sales to other EU countries on foot of new packaging rules they say are destroying the single market.
A rule change that kicked in this week requires firms, no matter how small, to register in every EU country into which they sell.
The fees and red tape are more than many solo traders can afford, effectively locking them out of what should be the single market.
All businesses are hit but small businesses say they’re worst affected.
“Like so many craft businesses, all my packaging is reused (old Amazon boxes),” says Tamzen Lundy, who makes gifts from wool and sells on her own online shop, Tamzen Lundy Designs.
“I use these to ship any online orders, which might be a handful a year across mainland EU, and a good lot in Ireland.”
She says the new rules treat businesses like hers “the same as the big boys like Amazon, whose packaging I’m, ironically, re-using”.
Complaints of a similar nature are streaming in from across the EU and the UK via the European Commission’s website, with record shops, toy makers, 3D printers and painters accusing the EU of being out of touch with small businesses.
