--- title: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs description: The European Union's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), applying generally from 12 August 2026, requires sellers shipping packaging across EU... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-europe-is-killing-makers-and-micro-entrepreneurs-h9zwvwm6f twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs | daily.dev og:description: The European Union's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), applying generally from 12 August 2026, requires sellers shipping packaging across EU... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-europe-is-killing-makers-and-micro-entrepreneurs-h9zwvwm6f og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/H9zWvWM6F.png og:image:alt: How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs **[Tech Lead Digest](https://daily.dev/sources/techleaddigest)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The European Union's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), applying generally from 12 August 2026, requires sellers shipping packaging across EU member states to register and comply with Extended Producer Responsibility schemes separately in each country. For micro-entrepreneurs and hardware makers selling small volumes internationally, this creates disproportionate costs (estimated €1150/year for just four countries) relative to the actual packaging involved. The founder of Lectronz, a marketplace for open-source hardware makers, argues this could force small sellers to abandon the EU market entirely, favoring shipping to the US instead, and proposes solutions including an EU-wide de minimis threshold, a centralized EPR One Stop Shop, and allowing marketplaces to represent sellers collectively. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and when does it take effect The PPWR is an EU regulation harmonizing packaging waste rules that generally applies from 12 August 2026. It requires businesses that place packaging on the market to register and fulfill Extended Producer Responsibility obligations separately in every EU member state where their packaging becomes waste, rather than through a single unified system, creating fragmented national compliance requirements. _Sellers navigating EU compliance changes like PPWR can track regulatory shifts affecting their business on daily.dev._ ### How much does it cost a small seller to comply with EU packaging waste rules across multiple countries Complying with packaging waste obligations in just four EU countries (France, Belgium, Germany, Austria) can cost around €1150 per year in registration fees and authorised representative services, even for someone shipping only ten small packages totaling roughly 500 grams annually. Selling across all 27 member states would require thousands of units sold yearly just to justify the administrative overhead. _Micro-entrepreneurs weighing cross-border compliance costs can follow evolving EU rules like this on daily.dev._ ### What solutions have been proposed to fix the EU PPWR burden on micro-entrepreneurs Proposed fixes include an EU-wide de minimis threshold exempting small-volume sellers from cross-border packaging obligations, a centralized EPR One Stop Shop similar to the VAT OSS system for registering and paying fees across all member states at once, and allowing marketplaces to register and report waste collectively on behalf of all their sellers as a single producer. The European Commission has also proposed suspending the authorised-representative requirement until 2035, though this has not yet been adopted. _Anyone tracking how EU regulation reshapes small seller operations can follow developments like these on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How Packaging Can Kill An Electronics Microbusiness](https://daily.dev/posts/how-packaging-can-kill-an-electronics-microbusiness-so5nrfuer) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#ecommerce](https://daily.dev/tags/ecommerce), [#entrepreneurship](https://daily.dev/tags/entrepreneurship), [#regulation](https://daily.dev/tags/regulation) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-europe-is-killing-makers-and-micro-entrepreneurs-h9zwvwm6f) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-europe-is-killing-makers-and-micro-entrepreneurs-h9zwvwm6f","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-europe-is-killing-makers-and-micro-entrepreneurs-h9zwvwm6f"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T06:58:28.519Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T06:58:55.883Z","description":"The European Union's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), applying generally from 12 August 2026, requires sellers shipping packaging across EU...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/587931126d01b9fd93c0ff9b04f3d648?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/587931126d01b9fd93c0ff9b04f3d648?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Tech Lead Digest","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Tech Lead Digest","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/6ed1ee1a2e5c49f698265a6b2912b80d","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techleaddigest"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-europe-is-killing-makers-and-micro-entrepreneurs-h9zwvwm6f","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware,ecommerce,entrepreneurship,regulation","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tech Lead Digest","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techleaddigest"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-europe-is-killing-makers-and-micro-entrepreneurs-h9zwvwm6f#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and when does it take effect","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The PPWR is an EU regulation harmonizing packaging waste rules that generally applies from 12 August 2026. 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