Reply To: GPSR horror (argh!)

[limburger 22101xp 1]

It is going to impact small businesses (even the ones in the EU), because they have to add yet another layer of admin just to make sure the forms have all the correct answers and boxes ticked.

We’ve seen how Brexit wrecked the industry as there was a lot of time that needed to be wasted on making sure the forms needed to transport goods from the UK into the EU (and back) had the correct paperwork, despite the fact that all of that had been done with zero issues before. Sure … we eventually got systems and work-arounds in place to do all of that (Mantic sending their orders as ‘kickstarter pledge’ still has me giggle a bit), but the delay did a real number on the small companies and their profits within our niche.

And what is this going to achieve ?
The big boys will just wait for the law suits and claims, because they can afford the lawyers to find the loop holes they need.
The ones selling crap will continue to sell cheap crap, because they never cared anyway. The data they gather may be worth any loss …

The little guys will lose, because they never ever will have the resources to provide a full audit trail to anything they buy. There is a lot of implied trust within that level of business.

Besides … are we as consumers really going to check if the paperwork is correct ?
We ‘trust’ the CE markings even though we also know they are easily copied.
Heck, I doubt any of us know what half the existing regulations are for the things we use, because we kind of trust corporations not to sell us potential dangerous goods.

All this will achieve is angry customers who find that the stuff they bought got confiscated or delayed, because someone forgot to dot all of the i’s and cross all of the t’s. I’ve seen this happen since Brexit and there’s always that layer of fear, uncertainty and doubt when ordering from across the pond as a result. Never mind the additional cost that we’ve had to pay as a result of this paperwork.