pirate website & customs problem

[ben3]

Hi,

I would like to mention two problems I have encountered which might concern others.

I recently got swindled buying at a store called "La bottega dei Desideri". The website works, but they do not send any order nor reply to emails. However, they do cash in immediately.

The other warning is about customs in Belgium and Germany. I have had several DVDs stolen from their cases and one entire parcel "confiscated" because "it is illegal to import erotic titles from non-EU countries to EU countries", the customs officer said.

[candela]

I'm from Belgium and that seems absolutely ridiculous to me. Customs is strict here but only on the tax side of things when importing from outside the EU. There are no censorship laws (voluntary ratings are the same as Holland) and porn is definitely not confiscated. This might of course be a different story in Germany with their Jugendschutz.

[ben3]

Hi Candela,

It also sounds ridiculous to me, I suspect it is an excuse to divert the parcel. It was indeed confiscated in Germany, which I found astonishing given their openness to porn. Could you explain in what that protection consists?

[candela]

Well movies have ratings there and FSK-18, unrated or porn etc. cannot be sold in (online) stores without verifying the age of the buyer. Therefore many stores don't carry such movies (for example Amazon). But I'm not sure how it works if someone from Germany imports from elsewhere where this age verification does not exist. Maybe customs (if the movies come from outside the EU) requires age verification then before releasing the package. Maybe some German forum can give some more information.

But it's a pain in the ass buying dvds online from Germany. Sometimes you have to get them from foreign sites which really take advantage of the situation and sell those dvds too expensive since you can't get them anywhere else.