smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Small businesses in the UK could find it easier to sell goods or services to other European countries thanks to a new EU-wide sales law, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

As it stands, businesses that wish to sell products or services to other nations have needed to comply with different sets of rules and regulations in each of the 27 EU member states.

The new proposal, outlined on Tuesday in Brussels, would give countries the option to choose a common sales law that would deal with issues such as repairs, return policies and warranties.

The FSB is now urging the government to support plans for the new sales law, which it claims it would help a fifth of businesses in their online trade with other countries. National chairman of the FSB, John Walker, comments, ‘An optional EU-wide sales law is clearly the only way to solve the legal barriers small firms face when selling in the EU, so this is welcome news.’

The FSB states that small businesses currently could be spending thousands of pounds on advice on local legislation. In its “Voice of Small Business” survey 14 per cent of those businesses which trade abroad responded that legal barriers are a disincentive to international trade.

The European Commission estimates that it costs firms an average of €10,000 in translation and legal advice to sell products in a new EU country.

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