A billion-euro German business-to-business online retailer has publicly warned that the European Union is steadily converting reasonable rules into disproportionate bureaucracy that drains resources from investment, innovation and jobs.
In a detailed statement published on October 27, Böttcher AG criticised the cumulative effect of new rules on environmental claims, packaging, product safety, labelling, data protection and consumer protection.
The company, which reports more than €1 billion in annual revenue, around 10 million customers and a catalogue of more than 250,000 products, said it supports clear rules against genuine consumer deception.
Based in Zöllnitz, near Jena in Thuringia, central Germany, it employs more than 700 people and describes itself as the country’s largest online shop for business customers.
It argued, though, that the latest regulation of environmental claims exemplifies a wider problem. Those rules derive from Directive (EU) 2024/825 on empowering consumers for the green transition, which member states had to transpose by March 27 and which has applied since September 27.
Turnover-based fines, the company said, can bear little relation to actual profit margins.
For high-volume, low-margin businesses, it added, a sanction calculated on revenue can exceed annual profits many times over. Böttcher reported revenue of about €908 million and net profit of €79.9 million in 2024, a net return of roughly 8.8 per cent.
Implementing the rules across a vast product range requires checking texts, images, videos, labels and claims, then documenting and legally securing them, the retailer said.
This draws in lawyers, compliance staff, sustainability specialists, programmers, IT security experts, product managers, buyers and logistics personnel.
The resources consumed, Böttcher said, are resources that cannot be used for investment or employment.
Böttcher AG warnt!
Greenwashing-Regulierung: Europa reguliert sich selbst aus dem WettbewerbDie Böttcher AG erwirtschaftet mehr als eine Milliarde Euro Jahresumsatz, betreut rund 10 Millionen Kunden und bietet mehr als 250.000 Produkte an. Wir unterstützen klare Regeln gegen… pic.twitter.com/O3sT5HLjVX
— Böttcher AG (@BoettcherAG) October 27, 2026
The statement noted that each new requirement is justified individually, while companies bear the combined load.
“Europe talks about competitiveness and cutting bureaucracy. At the same time, bureaucracy grows year after year,” the company wrote.
It added that some firms are already avoiding accurate environmental claims simply to limit legal risk, reducing rather than increasing transparency, a reflex it labelled “greenhushing”.
Böttcher called for rules against real deception, but also for proportionality, legal certainty and an actual reduction in administrative burden. “Europe does not need yet more announcements about cutting bureaucracy — Europe must finally actually cut bureaucracy.”
The warning follows an earlier decision in September, when Böttcher abandoned a prepared market entry into Austria and further European expansion plans.
The company estimated that step would forgo up to €500 million in potential annual revenue and up to 300 jobs.
At the time it cited high taxes and social contributions, energy and labour costs, a lack of planning certainty and steadily rising bureaucracy.
The immediate trigger was the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), whose registration, reporting, documentation and disposal obligations would apply afresh in each new market and scale heavily with a large assortment.
Adopted as Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the PPWR entered into force in February 2025 and has applied across the bloc since August 12.
Brussels has conceded the broader point. The European Commission has pledged to cut administrative burdens by at least 25 per cent for all companies and by at least 35 per cent for small and medium-sized enterprises, worth €37.5 billion in recurring costs by June 2029.
By the middle of this year it had tabled 12 omnibus simplification packages, covering everything from sustainability reporting to chemicals, taxation and energy.
The Commission estimated those proposals would save just over €18 billion a year, roughly half the target, and most of them have yet to clear the European Parliament and member states.
Separate work on a Green Claims Directive, which would have required prior verification of environmental claims, was suspended in June 2025 and the file has not been adopted.
Böttcher has continued to grow in Germany and has invested substantially in its own logistics capacity near Jena, though it also shelved planned German investment in May.
Its public interventions highlight a recurring complaint from parts of German and European business, namely that successive layers of well-intentioned EU and national rules, taken together, raise fixed compliance costs and discourage cross-border growth even when demand and capital are available.
The European Commission has urged EU member states not to enforce key provisions of the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and to refrain from imposing penalties, days after the rules became applicable across the bloc. https://t.co/nwH0GVaK81
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 19, 2026
