EU PETITION

Since so many of you are sharing this petition, here's what I think about it. Does the person who wrote this petition have the reasoning skills of a goldfish? The entire argument boils down to: "I want to buy cheap jeans." If that's the best case against the new rules, then you're practically handing regulators evidence that they were right to introduce them.

The strongest arguments are being completely ignored.

These rules undermine the right to repair. It can become cheaper to throw away a perfectly functional device than to repair it, because a handful of inexpensive replacement parts may each fall under different tariff classifications and incur separate 3 EUR charges. Instead of encouraging sustainability, the policy incentivizes waste.

They also destroy countless hobbies and micro-businesses. This isn't about wanting cheaper craft supplies. Many specialist materials, bookbinding tools, electronics components, sewing notions, pigments, or restoration parts simply do not exist on the European market. There is no local alternative to "support."

As for clothing? Most of the same products are already sold within the EU - Only by resellers charging three or four times as much. A "Made in Italy" label is hardly proof of European manufacturing. Under origin rules, substantial processing can determine the country of origin, meaning a product may legitimately carry such a label despite much of its manufacturing taking place elsewhere. Consumers often pay several times more for effectively the same item with different branding.

If you're going to start a petition, build it on arguments that expose the economic and environmental consequences of the legislation - not on the desire to buy cheap jeans.

I'm against these measures as well, but not because someone wants to order their eightieth pair of underwear or another drawer full of disposable kitchen gadgets they'll never even unpack. I'm against them because they disproportionately harm repair, craftsmanship, scientific work, niche industries, and small creators - the very groups that contribute value instead of disposable consumption.