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EU Law. How to block EU purchases? Shipping setup.

Hello,

I thought that by setting shipping for certain countries will automatically "block" sales to the countries, for which shipping is not set. It seems working with physical goods (does it or I am wrong?).

But how to exclude EU counties from purchasing digital downloads? With all new regulations, I don't want to sell to EU.

I did a test by setting up a digital download product. And I created a shipping rule based on price with "free shipping" to USA, Canada, Mexico and Australia.

I thought that sinse these are only counties I created a shipping rule for, no other counties will be able to purchase my digital downloads. Was I wrong? 

When I did a test by entering Austian address, I was able to purchase! Well, I didn't go through with the purchase, of course. But nothing prevented me from paying by PayPal with Austrian address.

So, what to do and how NOT to sell to EU? 

And if EU customers buy because I simply have no means to choose not to sell to them, how many years in jail I face?

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12 REPLIES 12

I just added a suggestion to be able to block EU countries from purchasing digital downloads to "vote for features" section. 

Please vote.

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@JustImagine

You are correct.  You could be in deep trouble for violating US export control regulations.  In my previous life I was Export Officer.

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Square

Thanks for posting it there, @JustImagine!

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Hi Adam,

Do you have an answer to my question? Or maybe a suggestion? Is Weebly planning to make any adjustments to the platform to help sellers to avoid problems?

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@JustImagine

Checkout this link it could work for you.  It is on github so the plugin is free, but installation????

https://wordpress.org/plugins/edd-prevent-eu-checkout/

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@bobafett

Thank you! Checking this out.

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Hi @JustImagine,

Just wanted to confirm, no, we do not have that ability to block EU purchases. Having asked around, there isn't anything like that necessarily in development. However, having broached the topic here on Community and adding the suggestion at our Idea Exchange, it certainly will now be discussed!

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@Brodie Hi Brodie,

Thank you for your reply. I am not an engineer and it might sound funny, but I thought of possible work around. Maybe it won't be difficult to implement:

If only it was possible to set shipping for digital downloads as we do for physical items.

Then, by specifying countries where we "ship", we would autimatically exclude "other" countries. Shipping can be set as "free". I think it is the way it works with physical items.

People who don't need this option will never use it, so there is no confusion. Customers will see "free shipping" on the order, which will make sense too, because there is no shipping involved. (and they like free stuff!) Smiley Happy

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Right now it is not possible to block countries within Weebly from purchasing a digital file. The shipping requirements do not come into play since you are not shipping anything.
You can restrict, any country, from making purchases on your site, in your Paypal account.  However, using this method will block the country selected from buying all products on your site, not just digital files.
If you don't mind and wish to restrict the EU from buying your physical goods as well. Then this option will work for you.
 To get started log into Paypal.com and click 'Profile' at the top. In the new window click "My Selling Tools", then scroll down to the section titled, "Getting Paid and Managing my Risk". In this section click update next to, "Managing Risk and Fraud". You will be taken to a new window, scroll down and click the 'edit' button. The next screen will look like this and will allow you to add countries that you want to restrict or block altogether.

image

Add all the EU countries to the right side. After you've completed this area, scroll down and click 'Decline'; doing so will block all purchases from these countries on your entire site. Finish by clicking the save button. The change will go into effect immediately.

We are speaking with the developers on resolving this issue completely. So that you don't have to block any country if you don't want to. We appreciate you adding it to the vote on features section.

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@Robin 

Thank you so much. It looks like a solution for now. I will definitely do that.

I don't ship physical goods outside of USA and Canada, so it won't hurt.

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Excellent @JustImagine! I am very happy to hear that this option will work for you.

Thank you for letting me know. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend.

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I don't use Paypal payment. Is there other way to resolve it? 

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