EU Countries and Shipping

Shipping to the EU

Yes, we ship pretty much everywhere! Since the beginning of 2021 there have been a number of changes to the way we send packages to the EU. Here is a brief summary to let you know how we are now sending packages to you, in the EU, and how this might affect your shopping experience. Below that, we’ve added some extra information which we hope will fill in the background and give you an insight of what we’d like to do in order to improve EU shipping in the future.

In the past it didn’t matter whether you resided in the UK or any of the other EU states, we just charged VAT during checkout, shipped the package and sent you a tracking number. We offered free shipping, or you could choose a courier service if you preferred and we charged you at a preferential rate.

Now, we will not charge VAT during checkout and so your order will be shipped tax free. We will always use a tracked mail service except in the rare cases where it isn’t available. We will ship the package with all the necessary customs documentation.

The UK is the country of origin for Bigatmo sunglasses and so there is no duty payable when they are imported into an EU state.

VAT, however, is payable on import and your mail service will contact you to collect it. The process of collecting the VAT may well attract an additional charge called disbursement. It appears that this fee is about EUR 10.00 but can vary. Your package is then released and delivered to you. Hooray.

Is it possible to ship to the EU using courier services? Yes, it is! Feedback from our logistics company has shown that the courier companies have had numerous problems and so we have decided to remove the auto quote system on our eCommerce platform, for EU sales. In addition, the courier companies are applying a number of surcharges (fuel, Covid and especially Brexit) that we find rather irksome. So, although we subsidies the price of using a courier, we feel that the extra cost does not necessarily result in a speedier or more hassle-free experience. If you need to ship to an area where you feel that a courier offers real benefits, please send us a message so that we can quote and ship to you without delay.

By email: [email protected]

By phone: +44 (0)1622 844030

Some more information:

Our ambition is to offer you a similar service to the one that we used to experience prior to 2021. In order to achieve this, we need to ship DDP which means Delivered Duty Paid. Under this scheme we would, once again, charge VAT at checkout. The tracked package is then sent to you and should arrive without delay, hoorah, and we arrange payment of the VAT.

Currently, it’s not clear how to operate this system in a cost effective and efficient way. Also, in July 2021 EU rules around eCommerce and VAT collection are changing and this might simplify the process. At the moment, there are varying interpretations of the rules and we’re waiting for some uniformity before completing our arrangements.

Items shipped to the EU arrive via Ports of Entry and obviously they all need to apply the rules correctly and uniformly. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence to show that this hasn’t always been the case, although we would expect these teething problems to reduce fairly quickly.