Base.com No Longer Shipping Outside Of Europe

I checked search for a "competing" thread before posting this. Nothing came up. From an email:

Non-EEA Fulfilment



We have been experiencing an increasing number of legal challenges and other issues with our shipping of orders outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). Our suppliers transact with us on the basis that goods will only be sold within the EEA.

These issues have been compounded by: Covid-19 related delivery constraints and costs, an increasing number of lost parcels, local taxation changes, and customs delays. All this has led our Board to take the decision that, with immediate effect we will cease taking orders for countries outside of the EEA.

From the 1st October, we will cease to ship orders outside of the EEA. Any orders that are still outstanding will be cancelled.

We regret we have had to take this action and apologise for any inconvenience we have caused you.

Kind regards

Base.com

I'd like to comment, but it would be 100% about USA politics, so I will refrain.

 

The virus happened because of USA politics? Hmmmm...

 

The USA gvt FORCED all other countries to raise incoming international postage rates. Google it.

 

How much is one LP from London to New York City with no tracking? $24 the other way.

 

I can't answer definitively, but it's supposed to be identical with the new "agreement".

 

Global postal group reaches deal to avoid US withdrawal

Boy, that's complicated. All I know, is shipping rates seem higher for everything in last couple of years. And by buying enough to get free shipping from Amazon.ca I know I'm paying higher prices on the products themselves...

 

Strange but true, releases in the EEA were only intended to be sold within the EEA. There are different license agreements in other territories. I'm not entirely surprised that record labels are getting tough on overseas shipments, but the timing is 20 years late.

 

As usual the record companies will try to manipulate the market to their own advantage.
I remember back in the '70s, the UK market was flooded with "IMPORT" albums which were priced slightly below their domestic counterparts. They were made in and for the southern European market: Italy, Spain etc., where production costs were considerably lower. They came with the requisite revenue stamps, however the quality was abysmal. I bought an Italian import pressing of "Meddle" which had so many clicks and spits that it made Echoes unlistenable.
Now that the exchange rates between the euro and pound Vs the dollar make it advantageous for US punters to do self importation, the labels are crying foul.

 

I've posted this before, but not on this thread. I was in the industry in the 80's, & here's the story:

Back in the days of vinyl (as most of us know) Japanese & European vinyl were often better pressed than USA vinyl. They sounded better. The major labels sued the largest import wholesaler of the time, "Jem" for "parallel imports"; in an attempt to stop the practice & maximize profits. They lost the court case, though the downtime ended up putting Jem out of business.

That's why all the region (and to a lesser degree licensing) bs on digital everything; it was a workaround for the labels for the USA legal precedent set in the Jem case.

 

When I live on the US, there was a record shop that had loads of imported CDs. Most were from up the road in Canada, but some were from Australia and Europe. And of course, the Argentinian imports were starting to appear. Base obviously aren't in the position to fight the record companies (online physical media sales aren't what they were), but record companies are now making more money from licensing music and streaming that I think it's largely a waste of time. In a years time, I suspect they won't be bothered.

 

I suspect the licensing issues may go away at some point, but I don't see the region protection on video (especially blu-ray) being removed in a major way.