anlumoSep 4, 2023

It takes a bit of effort to avoid amazon, and it does cost a bit more in money and convenience, but it is possible to not buy from them.

Ha, here in Austria the government has effectively made it impossible for small vendors to sell their stuff. Amazon is pretty much all that’s left.

Show threadtaco_ballerina
What did the government do to cause that?
Sep 4, 2023 at 10:45amWeb
Show threadanlumoSep 4, 2023
It’s a new packaging law. Every non-Austrian merchant who wants to ship goods to Austria has to have a local notary acting as a representative who has to register the packaging used for shipments with the local authorities and is personally held liable for this. There are local notaries that offer this service for foreign merchants for about €800 per year. However, Austria is such a small market that this most likely eats up all of the revenue from Austrian customers for small merchants, so most just stopped shipping to the country. Of course, large merchants like Amazon easily can handle that fee.
Show threadAceticonSep 4, 2023

That would go against the EU rules about Free Movement of people and goods (because it treats sellers from other countries differently from austrian sellers).

Maybe it only applies to sellers from outside the EU?!

Show threadanlumoSep 5, 2023

It also affects merchants from inside the EU. People here are pretty sure that it does violate Free Movement, but since those proceedings for violations can take a few years, for now we’re stuck with it.

In 2025 the EU wants to introduce a similar system for the whole Union, but unified (so one representative for the whole EU). When that comes, the Austrian system will probably be disbanded, and since the EU is significant enough of a trading partner, the whole issue will probably be fixed. However, until then we’re stuck with a law-enforced Amazon monopoly.