jgar - 11:58 am on Jul 29, 2010 (gmt 0)

Hi all, haven't posted for a while ...

We are a UK mailorder company and we have had to remove some electrical items from sale to German consumers owing to threats made by a competitor regarding European WEEE regulations

The WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive) is implemented in each country. In the UK we are registered with the DTS scheme - simple payment each year, takes a couple on minutes etc

It appears, in order to sell ANY electrical goods in Europe, you need to be registered with EACH of the 24 member countries in order to ship mailorder electrical goods to them ... including anything with a circuit board on it

If registering in 24 countries wasn't enough, in Germany registering is tough (2 months), and then you need to produce monthly reports apparently, oh and you need a German bank account, which is only possible to companies with a registered company there.

Have I got this all wrong, or is UK compliance sufficient for selling to members of the public anywhere in the EU? I have contacted the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), but no-one I've talked to seems to be able to advise.

I bet there are many online shops out there selling electrical goods to EU customers who are unaware of the problem here.

Can anyone shed light some light on this?
Anyone managed to successfully sell electrical goods in the EU?

I'd welcome your views on this ...