NOTICE FOR ALL EU and NI CHALLENGERS
As you may be aware from the 13th of December the New EU GSPR come into force in the EU.
The short version is that all products, new or old, being sold into the EU must comply with more paperwork and regulations. This would be manageable for us based on what we do. However we would be required to have a legal representation based in the EU, in case of issues. This is more cost and one that at the moment is very high.
All of this adds more cost to already high costs of doing business in the EU, due to the requirements we have to do to be part of the IOSS tax scheme so you do not have to pay import tax.
So as there is so much unknown here, grey areas and little to no help or guidance from the EU or UK Governments we are having to make the tough decision to pause sales of entries to new challenges from the 6th of December.
What does this mean?
1. Any challenges that are near completion we will shipped in advance to avoid delays, there may be none but with no guidance on who or when or how checks are done, we feel this best.
2. If you have any medals you want please join the challenge before the 6th of December, your medal will be shipped, labeled, on purchase. So not ideal but you will be able to get that medal and still complete the online challenge
3. Any challenges, longer distance ones, that are not near completion will continue as normal. See more below.
4. From the 6th of December we will no longer be able to accept orders from the EU and NI (Yes NI as well, thanks Brexit).
We are already ensuring we will have the labelling and technical sheets for our products ready. Once there has been some clarity and hopefully common sense added to this complete nightmare for small businesses we will be able to resume orders to the EU in the new year.
We are already in conversation with a number of organisations based in the EU offering a representative service, but with no approved list from any Government we are wary of scams and making sure we hire the right organisation.
We are hoping many will not notice any changes except some extra labelling. But for now the challenges of running a small business grow.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our EU challengers. Whilst our EU sales only make up a small percentage of our challenge sales, we love knowing that our medals make it to so many different countries. 11 EU countries receive our medals each month, a couple only one or two medals. But each one we note, each one brings a smile to our face knowing someone in a remote part of Spain is opening something they have worked so hard for.
We hope this pause is temporary and that once we are able to get a clear idea of costs involved we will be able to make the decision to start selling in the EU again.
lotts, sootybear and 13 others5 Comments
I remember being told there would be no downside to Brexit and it was all going to be sunlit uplands with a free unicorn each. 🤷🏻
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Nervous challenger from Croatia here 🙋🏻♀️ and just earlier this week, I was just looking at other challenges I would take on in the future as I work towards completing my last one for this year… I hope everything works out for you guys and you find a good organisation willing to help
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I’m sad to hear this. Hopefully it will be just for a small time and then the people in the EU an NI can join your challengers again.
Thank you for al the beautifull challengers that i have walked for.
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I really hope that you can return to the EU sales in the future!! MedalMad has been amazing for my physical rehab after my spinal cord injury and I have many medals hanging on my wall already.
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Bit of an update, we have found a trusted organisation to work as our representative in the EU. We are having to pull together a lot of data, so not sure when it will all be processed. The extra cost is a bit frustrating in this current climate but reasonable for the service the representative has to provide. So progress is being made. We will still follow the above in terms of shipping, plus with Christmas post there is a good chance most challenges will be completed before the medal arrives.
The kind words here and also the emails we have received have only increased our determination to make this work. MedalMad does not make a lot of money, we are not a big business, our small team are in it for the love of what we do, and we intend to do our best to get this resolved as soon as possible.1
