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I was reading about posting (mailing) items from United Kingdom to Switzerland with Royal Mail . https://www.royalmail.com/sending/international/country-guides/switzerland lists prohibited items

Here is an indication of prohibited items for mailing to Switzerland ... Vegetable products ... Explosives ... Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry.

I can imagine why vegetables and explosives might not be permitted in the post (mail), but is it really illegal to post (mail) books and newspapers from United Kingdom to Switzerland?

Colonel Panic
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  • It could be worse; as well as banning books, the Germany page says that it is strictly prohibited to send anything made of paper to Germany. I hadn't realised it was illegal to post letters to Germany,,, https://www.royalmail.com/sending/international/country-guides/germany – Showsni Apr 01 '21 at 15:33
  • Someone asked the official Royal Mail twitter and the responded that yes, the prohibition on books is correct: https://twitter.com/stevetoase/status/588299226007916544 – Showsni Apr 01 '21 at 15:41
  • You can try to look it up here ... I gave up before finding "book". http://www.cds.post/cds.web/Management/SearchRestrProhib.aspx?SendCtry=GB – GEdgar Apr 07 '21 at 21:49
  • This might be better over on Law.SE. – Paul Johnson Apr 09 '21 at 13:30

1 Answers1

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According to TrendEconomy.com, in 2020, USD $128 million of printed matter was sent from United Kingdom to Switzerland.

According to the Swiss customs administration, there are no bans on printed matter.

When you look at the Royal Mail website, there is an explanation section and below "Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry; manuscripts, typescripts and plans", there is an entry "Public coats of arms and factory trademarks" which is explained in greater detail. I suspect that only the latter item is restricted, and the section header above it was added in error.

To support my conclusion: on the India Post website the section header and subheader appear properly.

Avery
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    1) A lot of people sell cocaine, doesn't make it legal. 2) The section about coat of arms is clearly a separate bullet point. 3) OP isn't shipping from India. All in all, this seems like a weird list of non-answers. – pipe Mar 31 '21 at 05:47
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    Pos Indonesia also have an aggregated document https://ems.posindonesia.co.id/prohibited.php that contain identical sections with the India Post, It's clear that the Royal Mail website did a very lousy job at transcribing the official PDF into webpage – Martheen Mar 31 '21 at 09:58
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    "$128 million of printed matter was sent from United Kingdom to Switzerland." ... but by Royal Mail or by some other method? – GEdgar Mar 31 '21 at 12:12
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    @Avery UPS, FedEx, and DHL all seem to serve the UK. – TheWanderer Mar 31 '21 at 12:51
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    @Avery "Is there another method?" You fill a lorry with your books, drive it to your warehouse in Switzerland, and distribute from there. – GEdgar Mar 31 '21 at 15:42