Shipping from UK to Germany?

As I understand it the reason is because German customs are incredibly stringent about how scent is shipped. The bottle itself needs to be sealed and the package needs to be a box, rather than a jiffy bag. Otherwise they won't accept it through the postal service.
Having said that, I had a total brain fart a couple of months ago and sent out a jiffy bag to a friend in Germany, with 4 samples in, all unsealed. Also, unstamped... I thought I'd put it to one side to repackage, ended up posting it out with everything else! It got to her address, in one piece, with no issue, despite having had no postage paid on it....

Hmmm, I just got my shipment from ebay.de, a 50 ml fragrance in a bubble envelope, so if the same rules apply for receiving it should be no problem. I heard that the real reason for sellers not wanting to ship to Germany is the german folk who were supposedly difficult customers who complained too much and left negative feedback if the shipment wasn't there soon enough, which is sometimes impossible with international transaction, but perhaps that's just a rumor?

Can we set this straight for good? It's NOT German customs or postal service that's picky. That's just BS by US ebay sellers. If anybody is picky, it's USPS and American customs. The ONLY thing German customs care about is that you pay your 19% VAT on NON-EU imports.
Now, you may recall that the UK and Germany are part of the European Union (emphasis on UNION), so there are absolutely no restrictions, duties etc. whatsoever on perfume shipping. If I sound a bit agitated, it's only because this is about the fifth time I've written this post, sorry.

Yeah, that sounds plausible, but it still remains a mystery (at least to me), why won't sellers ship to Germany?!

I have shipped perfumes to Germany in bubble envelopes several times with no problems at all.

Allow? They won't like it because of the outrageous prices they can charge in Germany for perfume, but they can't stop the free movement of goods inside the EU.

I heard the restrictions were because perfume is "hazardous material" in Germany, which would be in line with yearofperfume's post. Anyway, I never had problems with regular shipping inside Europe.\t No customs - out of sight, out of mind.

the_good_life is 100% right, and as a German I also get angry to read all this false information. As far as I'm concerned, ebay USA forbids to sell to Germans but for no reason at all. Since they made this a rule you read it all the time even ouside ebay and / or the US: We don't ship to Germany. Thank you, ebay!

The USPS rules are very strict, I guess, that's part of the problem.

The German customs are not concerned about packaging etc., I received a lot of bottles from around the world, that were not sealed, mostly vintage and not every time in boxes. I never had problems with decants as well. Not to mention, that parcels are custom free in the European Union. Unfortunatly shipping costs from France, Belgium and UK are very high.

BUT, and that's an important BUT:

(Fragrance) companies can give the permission to the German customs, to check products for authenticity (they have to pay the customs for that service, by the way). The companies provide special insides in the products and their boxes, so that the custom officers are able to identify knock-offs. In that case, the product will be destroyed and the German addressee won't receive the perfume and, what's more, won't even get a note about that. That is no rumour, I talked about that with a German customs officer, who is specialized in that matter. Not every company does it, but for sure the big ones like Chanel, Dior and Estee Lauder, but a lot more, I guess.

That's why I would be very catious buying from sellers, who only exclude Germany from shipping, but maybe I exaggerate.

re Good life and Bandit.
Well, speaking from personal experience I have to respectfully disagree on a few things.

I've been a US powerseller on ebay for years, acutally 50 % of my clients are in Europe, 30 % in the US, and 20 % rest of the world, and in the past year, I've had many listings cancelled du to the infamous trademark violalion because I was shipping to europe,so I did find a way to get around it, after numerous letters from the several german law firms representing a lot of the brand perfumes manufacturers/owners.
When ebay prohibits US to send perfumes to Germany, they are actually applying the law. I have found the hard way dealing with German customs, the importation of perfumes is heavily regulated in Germany.Whether the perfume is shipped from London or NY.
A perfume shipped within the Union is still submitted to the same rules,and being in the Union only means reprocity, and not free circulation of all goods. Perfume is classified as dangerous,and submitted to its own class of circulation rules in all UE countries.
This is a fact, so yes German custom are very picky. I have plenty of german customers and I use a private courrier Cie to get their goods to them, the Cie is in London and they have their own clearance sytems so none of my packages do get held up when they reach Germany, but I know from using both ups, and usps EMS in the past, that perfume will get held up, and of course taxed.I sell highly collectable bottles so the value is always + $400-$1500 hence the necessity to use EMS or fedex or ups or any secure courrier, and invariably my german customers receive calls from dhl asking them information on their packages, provenance, authenticity etc, sometimes, their packages get released within 48 hours, sometimes it takes longer, so far the longuest has been 4 weeks for a packages that only took 2 days to reach Germany.
Now, re the other issue and deutsche post, well, sorry folks but you are both wrong here too. For perfume coming from overseas, unless the sender actually indicated perfume on the custom form and it's in a small bubble enveloppe, then it'll go through without a hitch I suspect, but if the customs form actually indicates perfume ( and most won't, the use of the word "cosmetic"has seen a surge in the past few years for online traders)) and a box is used, then the recipient can be in for a suprise, and have the good never reach them, or be asked to come and collect it at some custom office, etc.
Perfumes being considered dangerous goods, in Gernany for the post to accept to ship/transit it, a dangerous goods box needs to be used (yes, they sell them at the PO). I suspect for domestic shipping, bubble enveloppe are used by people there and they don't have to explain they contain perfume, so it's fine; but since I also buy perfume from Germany, I have been told countless time of this dangerous goods regulation, and I know for a fact that some of my suppliers had to repack some of my shipments before they were accepted by dhl, and of course they cost even more to ship internationally whether to europe destination or the US, so yes, dhl and customs do care even for packages leaving Germany, and this is one of the reason german sellers do not ship perfumes abroad.
This has been my experience, and what I know about the shipping of fragrances there.

If Rain is right, that would almost qualify as racism.

No seriously, I find it highly improbable that such a large amount of sellers would exclude a whole country for a reputation of having "diffilcult customers".

Hello Vic2007

Can you please forward to me the address and contact details of the company in London namely Cie that you mentioned above because I am having problems on how I can send perfumes to countries in Europe including Germany and France.

Your help is greatly appreciated