Looking through the rules for shipping lithium batteries at IATA, the “inner and outer” box thing is explicitly mentioned as a requirement, actually. It’s classified as a dangerous good, and thus needs to fullfill a bunch of requirements to make sure no careless handler can cause a lithium fire in the cargo/post compartment of an aircraft.
So personal guess: they took the smallest box they have stocked, put the battery in there with some packaging, then took the next box size that could fit the first. (The fines for violating this stuff seem like they can be quite painful.)
Confirmed the packaging is a requirement for shipping lithium-ion batteries (considered hazardous materials). While the outer box was a bit too large, the requirement is that there must be a smaller package within an overpack for safety reasons.
Important to note this requirement doesn’t exist everywhere globally, but for this shipment, it was required.
It is perfectly reasonable when said company has taken steps to be able to sell to you as if it were a local retailer. The reason this takes time for companies to do is specifically because it can get complicated, but companies (be they Framework, or Valve, or whoever else) still may consider it worth it because it can boost sales, give more satisfied customers (imagine the fury of someone not understanding that buying a System76 laptop comes with added Duties and VAT messing up their price calc), and so on.
So:
System76 case: unreasonable expectation, because you are importing privately.
Framework case: reasonable, you are technically purchasing within UK/EU/whatever, and should hold them to the same standards you’d hold your local Curry’s.
(And of course, in this case, Framework is both the manufacturer and seller. So that distinction does not matter. And they probably have either own staff, or consultancy firms on retainer, to understand and deal with this stuff and all similar matters, like VAT/import duties/etc etc.)
I would think Framework expects they’re subject to laws and regulations of the countries in which they’re selling. Was this not part of the reason they’re urging people not to freight forward to unsupported regions? To ensure compliance with laws and regulations in their supported markets?
Those rules likely don’t apply to foreign companies. @moderators Can we lock this thread? It has served its purpose and is devolving into pointless bickering. FW has said all they are going to do on the subject and nothing positive can come from this thread now. All knowledge on the subject is known.