News and information from Europe πͺπΊ
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This can potentially kill the likes of temu and shein and clean up of garbage all of amazon marketplace.
Great news for us customers.
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EU is like the dad the rest of the world wish we had. π
As a Canadian I wish we could be part of EU instead of being stuck with loud, polluting, selfish, violent neighbors.
You could probably join the EU but tectonic plate movement is not its strength.
I wonder if Canada could realistically join?
There's been talks on Turkey joining, which is mostly outside of Europe, but it's not even close. With Canada it doesn't make much sense, it'll always be closer to US. Maybe something resembling NATO or UN could be introduced, uniting all the still sane countries, but that would be short lived given how hard it is even for UN and NATO to function in the current political climate and rising alt right movements all around Europe - I don't think any country or organization is truly safe from those.
The point of eu is less about geographical location, and more about increasing cooperation and trade. Itβs evolved to more than that, but Canada joining is no different than any island nation already in the eu. Ireland, Cyprus, malta are all seperate from continental Europe. Canada trades heavily with the USA, but that relationship is not currently positive. The USA would have less ability to force conditions on Canada if they were part of the eu. Instead of being the smaller trading partner beholden to America, the become part of an equally larger bloc. No tariffs would be possible without tariffs on all. And likewise, reciprocal tariffs would be imposed by all states. Trump in his first term tried to negotiate terms with Germany. He couldnβt grasp the collective nature of the eu when Merkel deflected him on multiple times.
I think there is likely less upside on trading for Canada, than, say, Iceland or turkey, but there is still benefit, as a smaller country beside a larger one, thatβs their biggest trading partner. Those benefits are minimal for Iceland, but moderate for turkey. For each country itβs a different list of pros and cons.
I don't think so, but I wouldn't be surprised if, as the old world order continues to change into... this, that we will see an expansion/rework/new layer on top of the current association agreements. Something more like associate member states.
My guess is that it will take a form where associate states will have no explicit political power (no elected politicians, and not likely any appointed political positions either), but will have greater access to less direct influence, that could potentially-eventually even include formal rights of hearing with the Commission, a right to speak in Parliament, and/or guarantees of consultation on certain matters.
I think this could become a more standardised system than the current association agreements. In many ways it would be like having different membership tracks, with different benefits and requirements. I expect that realist school foreign policy is going to overwhelmingly dominate global foreign affairs, with the idealist school being relegated to mainly having influence in regional foreign affairs. As such, I think standards on political and human rights that these associate members will have to live up to are going to be an order og magnitude less strict than what is required of full members. There will probably be other requirements that will be more important, such as certain foreign policy commitments.
As for level of integration, I would imagine that such an associate member would be able to become fully integrated in many areas, but on an opt-in basis, possibly with almost standardised package deals, where certain benefits and obligations (both legal and economic) are bestowed together. Things like Schengen membership, or access to some of the large redistribute programs (agricultural subsidies come to mind) will remain very exclusive, and membership in these will continue to be largely political, rather than something that can be accessible to any associate member that fulfills certain objective criteria.
Do I have any special insights that make me able to predict the future? No. No one can predict the future. But I think these are some pretty solid guesses.
Depends on an issue. You mostly hear about the good stuff, not the bad / idiotic part.
Of course, but it's like 90% good vs 90% bad. π
Move fast, break things, pay damages
That would be great. Currently you're kind of fucked when it comes to customers rights: Amazon, but also nearly every other "platform" like eBay is full of chinese sellers. You order something and if their product burns down your house or harms you, you're fucked. Or the seller is one of those dropshipping get richt quick idiots that is basically acting as fall guy for pushing unsafe products into Europe. If your house burns down, well, he is fucked, too.
Why the fuck would they not already be?
reads a few web pages
I don't know about the EU, but it looks like in the US, if Amazon is selling a product directly -- as it once did for all products -- it bears liability. But if it is just acting as an intermediary between a non-Amazon seller and a customer -- kind of like how eBay works -- it doesn't. I assume that in that case, liability is on that seller.
Might be the same sort of situation in the EU.
I wonder if this EU directive just affects Amazon or also places like eBay. Amazon could presumably basically just sell stuff from Amazon in a worst-case scenario, but for places like eBay, I'd think that that'd have a huge impact on their business model.
EDIT: Also, if the product description is an input into liability, which I'd guess might be the case...hmm. So, right now, a non-Amazon seller selling through Amazon can write their product description. But suppose it, I don't know, sold a given product with a description that rendered it unsafe, like selling a box of rat poison as delicious candy. The rat poison itself might be safe if it were sold as rat poison, but not in the context of being sold as food. If Amazon is liable for that description, I'd think that they wouldn't want to permit sellers to write their own descriptions. That seems like it'd have a big impact as to how they operate.
Why? It should be up to the platform to vet sellers then. Amazon gives the seller credibility and takes a cut. They should have responsibilities that come with that.
Because many of the sales on those platforms currently are classed as "import by private consumer", directly between seller and buyer, the platform doesn't get involved.
At least Amazon and Aliexpress should only have to flip a switch, both have EU warehouses at which point the seller does the customs stuff and the buyer is not an importer, any more.
The whole "private import" scheme was never meant for these kinds of trade volumes, anyway, border authorities have no chance to keep up and when they flag down your package it's a huge pain in the ass because you'll have to fetch the package, in person, from one of their offices which might be three towns over. And explain to the official that it wasn't you who mislabelled the contents, or requested to do so.
Cool. Hurry up and get rid of them.
On a separate note. I recently got a recall message from Aliexpress for a wireless charger. Was honestly quite surprised they actually cared.
Aliexpress quality control is much better than Stein and Temu. It's reflected in the price. You have to toe the line or get removed as a seller if the product doesn't match the description. I've bought phones of Aliexpress and a laptop and they all matched the brand and specifications. The laptop did come with a Chinese windows but a Linux install fixed that easily.
Yeah I have never really had any real issues when buying from there.
I have had issues on some of the really cheap stuff, but I got my money back on the first try.
Must've been REALLY bad haha
No idea. never really used it much luckily. Bit I don't really see what the big issue with a 5W wireless charger can be
Short circuit overheating comes to mind
Thank you, Europe
Facebook ads are about to get even more insane.
Nice