Shipping to the EU has become increasingly difficult, and you may have noticed more and more of your favourite small UK stores withdrawing from selling to the EU recently due to the impact of new customs regulations which came into effect on July 1st and August 10th.
To meet the complex requirements of new taxes and packaging laws, retailers have been required to build their own numerous systems to collect and report taxes and packaging data for every EU member state, as well as obtaining separate licensing and representation within every single country they sell to. For a highly specialised little literary shop with Pratchett readers all over the EU, we are facing an outrageously disproportionate amount of work and expense to keep EU shipping viable.
Regarding taxes, we’ve done as much as we can at our end, but with such a huge variation in shipping and accounting systems used by individual stores, even the postal authorities have not yet implemented the necessary infrastructure to get us over the last hurdle. We are continuing to pressure our shipping partners to find a solution so that we can continue delivering our wares to Pratchett fans across the EU as soon as possible.
Regarding the EPR and PPWR, in response to social media backlash from small businesses the EU commission has suggested that they will be reconsidering packaging laws, but there is no clear indication from them of what that means for us now.
Here’s hoping there will be light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, and the fair trade of art, literature and culture can continue un-stifled.
Since the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2021, EU residents are required to pay VAT and customs duties charged by the destination county to receive goods imported from the UK, but we are working hard to ensure that the ordering process remains as painless as possible when shipping resumes.
From the 1st of July 2026 the de minimis duty exemption was replaced by a €3 customs charge that will apply to all orders entering the EU up to £135 (€150) . This charge applies to each item in a consignment according to its individual HS classification code (for example, if a package contains a book, a puzzle and a T-shirt, the total duty would be €9).
Despite the inevitable increase in costs for our EU customers, we’re aiming to ensure that VAT, customs duties and handling fees will be calculated and payable at checkout, so there’ll be no additional requirements or surprise charges to pay to receive your order for most EU countries.
To enable us to collect charges up front, and ensure smooth passage of your parcels into the EU we’ll be utilising Royal Mail’s Postal Delivered Duties Paid (PDDP) service to ship to 19 participating countries, with more hopefully coming on board in the near future.
Unfortunately, this does mean that we will be unable to ship to the following destinations when EU shipping resumes until a solution becomes available:
France, Italy and Romania have also introduced an additional tax for orders with an item value under £135 (€150):
We currently need to split larger orders due to weight restrictions imposed by the postal service, so please bear in mind that additional duties and handling charges may be levied per package. Please contact us before ordering and we can advise whether your order may be shipped in separate packages.
Our products do not include UK VAT for international customers, so you can be assured that you will not be paying more than you should, and as a literary shop we are happy to report that most EU countries offer greatly reduced rates for books!
However, on your initial visit to our site, prices will be displayed with UK VAT included. To view products without UK VAT please either log in to your account, or enter your delivery address in your basket or at checkout to continue browsing our site with your appropriate prices on display.
PLEASE NOTE: Our orders are sent fully customs compliant, with customs information and declarations provided electronically and on our packages. HOWEVER this does not always prevent customs from issuing erroneous charges. If you believe you have been charged additional fees in error please contact us before paying so we can advise, as once paid these can only be contested with your country’s customs by you.
Finally, we are not experts in global tax charges so for peace of mind we recommend consulting your own country’s government and postal service’s information on import tariffs and fees for receiving goods from the UK!
