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The response from Ofcom doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. If you are to sell a toy in the UK you must be a British company. (and must pay VAT and comply with Briti
by dijit 7mo ago
The response from Ofcom doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
If you are to sell a toy in the UK you must be a British company. (and must pay VAT and comply with British safety standards).
If a consumer buys from overseas and imports a product then they do not have British consumer protections. Which is why so much aliexpress electrical stuff is dangerous (expecially USB chargers) yet it continues to be legally imported.
Just, no british retailer would be allowed to carry it without getting a fine.
- tokyobreakfast 7mo agoThe US CBP routinely intercepts "dangerous" products. I assume the Brits have the same. It's a wonder why AliExpress flies under the radar. I assume it's impossible to keep up with it all. The UK's comically over-engineered electrics are no match for some of these plug-in-and-die sketchy USB chargers from the Far East. DiodesGoneWild on YouTube does teardowns of many of these incredibly poorly constructed deathtraps.
- refulgentis 7mo agoCommenting on Europe has gotten really lax the last year or so. People kinda will just say whatever pops into their head and it’s some drive-by claim that they haven’t thought about for a second past it popping into their head, presumably because it’s become normalized. (i.e. “but everyone knows Europe goes too far”) Sometimes it self resolves - as you contributed here, yes, countries limit and interfere and fine other countries businesses, all the time! I don’t know what yours means though. What electrics are made in the UK? How are they over engineered?
- tokyobreakfast 7mo ago[flagged]
- cookiengineer 7mo ago> Are you having a mini-stroke? This comment is comically pointless.
- refulgentis 7mo agoWhat do you mean? I’m at +4, so, I’m doubting it’s unreadable…
- wizzwizz4 7mo agoI think they mean the fact that UK plug sockets are earthed, and contain a mechanism that prevents you from shorting live and neutral with a bent fork, even though those safety mechanisms are rarely the last line of defence (hence "over-engineered"… you can probably tell that I disagree with that assessment).
- strideashort 7mo agoAnd by extension, the UK is free to implement His Majesty’s Greatest Firewall of the UK should they wish to control what is imported.
- mosura 7mo agoThis whole episode is a charade to do exactly that while claiming they are morally superior to China because the UK does it “for the children” while China does it because they are just evil authoritarians. For Tiananmen Square substitute Rape Gangs.
- cs02rm0 7mo agoI don't know why this is being downvoted. It's depressingly true; it seems the UK really heading quickly towards a Great Firewall, they've been looking to control VPN use [1] and the top most read article on BBC News right now is yet another public sector cover up of children being sexually abused. [2] [1] https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/uk-government-targets-vpns-in-new-online-safety-consultation-as-lords-vote-for-ban https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/uk-govern... [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyzy0y20qlo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyzy0y20qlo
- dgroshev 7mo ago> the UK really heading quickly towards a Great Firewall > top most read article on BBC News right now is yet another public sector cover up Do you not see a tiny little bit of contradiction here (regardless of your mis-characterisation of the second link)
- hunterpayne 7mo agoNo, I think it is you who is confused. The GP's point is that the BBC article isn't accurate or honest. You seem to have assumed the information in the link was accurate when the proof the GP implied was that the link isn't accurate.
- ge96 7mo agoI remember I bought some pills online one time (neutroopics type) they came from like India and were intercepted by customs/I got a letter. It's funny my roommate at the time bought em and didn't get intercepted so was odd. In hindsight it is dumb to buy random pills and take em.
- crtasm 7mo agoIs it correct to say the consumer is importing a product when it's aliexpress shipping it to them?
- reisse 7mo agoUnless AliExpress has a local entity, like they do in some countries, yes.
- john_strinlai 7mo agoyes, aliexpress would not be shipping it if the consumer did not order it.
- nvme0n1p1 7mo agoOf course. What situation are you imagining where a country imports a product without the seller shipping the product to that country?
- crtasm 7mo agoI mean: when I order something from abroad I don't consider myself as an importer - the store and/or the shipping companies they use are importing it into my country.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- helsinkiandrew 7mo agoParticularly if AliExpress is paying local VAT and import taxes (or at least dealing with the import paperwork) or even less if it’s from one of their local (UK/EU etc) warehouses
- freehorse 7mo agoThey have initiated the transaction. It would be "shipping to them" if somebody is sending them something by their own volition.
- 3rodents 7mo agoThat’s not really true. The Ofcom representative said “not allowed” not “unable to”. Even if cocaine is legal in my country, I’m “not allowed” to sell it to British consumers by the power of the British authorities. The British authorities may not have legal authority in my jurisdiction but they can take action in their own, including issuing penalties and stopping my deliveries at the border.
- oliwarner 7mo agoBut if a Brit comes to your country and buys cocaine from you, in person, you wouldn't expect to be convicted as a dealer in the UK. Ofcom has a bad handle on web requests. Clients connect out. 4chan et al aren't pushing their services in anyone in the UK.
- 3rodents 7mo agoIf we want to base the argument on technical nuance, 4chan are sending their packets to the U.K. just as the cocaine dealer would be sending packets (of cocaine) to their buyers in the U.K.
- tyho 7mo ago4chan send their packets to their ISP, not the UK.
- 3rodents 7mo agoThe destination of the packet where it is sent, just as a toy sent from the U.S. to a customer in the U.K. is sent to the U.K. rather than the local Fedex store.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- strideashort 7mo agonot at all, 4chan only sends packets to their isp!
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- RobotToaster 7mo agoIn theory you can still sue for a faulty product under UK consumer protection laws if it was sold by an international retailer, of course enforcement is "difficult".
- jimnotgym 7mo ago> yet it continues to be legally imported. I am not sure it is legal to import dangerous electrical equipment to the UK. It may be unenforced, that doesn't make it legal.
- ndsipa_pomu 7mo agoI was surprised by Ofcom trying to use that analogy as it's not at all relevant. 4Chan isn't selling anything in the UK, so why are Ofcom harping on about consumer protection? It's a stupid law and Ofcom are stupid. I wish that Labour hadn't continued with implementing the Tories authoritarian law, but then Labour seem to be a Tory-Lite party but with just less blatant corruption.
- dijit 7mo agotheres no mainstream anti-authoritarian party in the UK.
- ndsipa_pomu 7mo agoPossibly Greens? (That's the way I voted)
- philipallstar 7mo agoThe Greens are pretty authoritarian. Just a different authority.