[Blackthorn]

Lot of replies here but none of them have really hit the mark. European table saws are fundamentally different than American table saws, where the entire section left of the blade slides forward. Culturally it seems Europeans believe this is "safer" than the American style and therefore they don't need the blade safety mechanism. Personally I think that's nonsense, and apparently so do some of the companies because they've developed their own mechanism that they only use on their priciest saws.

Woodworking YouTube has changed this a bit. Since American creators are so widespread, everyone has gotten exposed to SawStop and I know at least a couple years back people were trying to import American-style table saws instead of the local European-style because that's what YTers have. I don't know if it was regulatory or what that has prevented the former from being more available in Europe.

[rtkwe]

Interesting seems like the European version is essentially an integral sled? That does seem much safer and inherently keeps hands away from the blade when used properly so a saw stop mechanism might not actually add a huge amount of safety real safety but is still a nice final safety measure. A lot of US literature and videos I've seen are heavily suggests using a sled whenever practical.

[f1shy]

Also dados are prohibited (more or less) in the EU. So yes, there are regulatory issues. And btw, I just cannot find a sawstop to buy here (at a human price)

[Freak_NL]

Right, dados are one of the things that baffle a lot of European woodworkers, myself included. Not that they don't seem useful; just a little on the iffy side of safety.

[rhinoceraptor]

I'm not sure if they still make it, but Festool and Sawstop are owned by the same parent company, Festool sells the TKS-80 saw in Europe that has the Sawstop tech.

[kiney]

the "american" style was literally imvented by a german company